The Beauty That Remains
by reyisawesome
Summary: Paranormal AU! Seto swore to close off his heart after the vicious murder of his brother. Now, years later, when he's assigned to investigate Yuugi Mutou's case, the dangerous paranormal occurrences in Yuugi's home as well as the confusing feelings he roused in him, causes Seto to reevaluate everything he believes in. Sorry, bad summary. Warnings vary from chapter to chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Rating:** T

 **Chapter Warnings:** Mentions of death, general creepiness and supernatural themes

* * *

 _"I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains."_

 **–Anne Frank**

He hated it. His concentration had begun to waver around supper time, he noted, as his eyes skimmed over the same line of text for five minutes straight. It was a act very unlike his normal, focused demeanor. His inability to concentrate annoyed him greatly, so sighing quietly, Seto Kaiba slammed shut the cover of his book, _The Conscious Universe: the Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena._ His hand subconsciously touched the locket around his neck as he picked up his bag and stood to leave the small study in his department's administrative centre, which had been set up for its Master and Doctorate students. The space was empty besides for him.

Glancing at the office workers and other Graduate students milling about in the larger office, Seto hoped to sneak out the psychology department's side door and escape the place for the day. He wanted nothing more than to go back to his apartment and take a well deserved nap. Taking a catnap was also very unlike him, but the tall young man groaned as he thought of the mountain of dissertation work waiting for him later in the evening. Seto suddenly regretted letting the progression of his dissertation paper crawl to a stop that late into the semester. The work had been difficult and tiring but he only had himself to blame. Nevertheless he was annoyed.

In a quiet, discreet manner, Seto tried to sneak out of the office unnoticed. He was almost out when a door across the hallway opened, revealing Isis Ishtar, the headmistress of the psychology department. The professor glanced over and caught Seto in his escape attempt. The student cringed as his mentor called his name, leading him to walk over to her reluctantly. Seto's icy blue eyes aimed a barely masked glare at his professor, but Miss Ishtar took no notice of her student's glower. The two headed into the headmistress' private office and Seto fell in step behind the older woman, wondering what she wanted to talk about on such short notice. The pair stepped into Isis' tidy bureau and the professor waved for her mentee to sit down in the one seat facing her desk. Instead, Seto remained standing and crossed his arms before asking,

"Why am I here, Professor? I have stuff to do at home." The young man tried to keep the aggravation in his tone to a minimum, but he was impatient to leave. His professor frowned but otherwise ignored her student's clear annoyance, long past used to Kaiba's constant off-putting attitude. The woman sat back in her chair and calmly replied,

"I believe I've received an urgent case and I want you to investigate it." Seto scowled immediately and straightened his back, miffed.

"I can't take on a case. I'm too busy with my thesis-" The teacher waved dismissively and pulled out a series of papers, which Seto recognized as his last sorry excuse of a work progress report. He tried not to cringe as Isis scoffed lightly and motioned to the papers on her desk.

"I believe we are both aware that you have made no progress in your work recently," the Egyptian woman said, her flawless Japanese always so formal. "So, to change your thoughts, I want you to work on this case."

\- "I'm not taking it. Whatever the person is claiming, it's probably false. We both know it. I won't waste my time, Professor." Seto answered and stared determinately at his mentor as the latter shook her head.

\- "You will. I think this case will be beneficial to your work, which has been slacking," the woman insisted.

Silently fuming, Seto stepped forward, as Isis mirrored him and placed her hand on her desk, her dark blue eyes severe.

"I won't do it. Period," the student stated coolly.

"Seto Kaiba," the professor warned, her usual polite tone wavering with impatience, "You may be one of my brightest students and a valuable asset to this team, but I have grown tired of your attitude lately. I have tried to be patient, but whatever issues you might be struggling with right now are to be put aside. I will put you on a month-long leave from your dissertation work. I want you to go back on the field and investigate this case. Maybe it will put your beliefs in prospective." Seto seethed, wanting badly to lash out at Isis, but not daring for fear of losing his place in the department's thesis program and parapsychology unit permanently. Turning his head away, he begrudgingly gave in to his professor's request, not truly in the mood to continue resisting. Seto stood up slowly, his gaze arctic cold as he mechanically bowed his head and glared at his professor before turning to leave the office. The older woman heaved a disappointed sigh at her mentee's manner as the door slammed behind him.

* * *

The following evening, a Saturday, Seto headed back to the university campus to retrieve the details of his assignment from his inbox in the Psychology department's main office, as instructed in the email sent by Professor Ishtar the night before. He let out a low hiss as he read that he would have to stay with the subject, who was also a student of Domino University, in his home to study the alleged paranormal occurrences on the property over several days. As Seto headed back to his motorcycle and started the engine, bringing the machine to life, he thought over the list of the student's complaints in Isis' report. The person's name was Yuugi Mutou, age twenty, and a freshman in the graphics and game design department. The young man had alleged several instances of unexplained events in the house where he lived alone, dating back specifically to the day after his late grandfather had passed away, two months before. There had been footfall in the hallways when no one else had been in the residence. This Yuugi character had also heard voices at night time, again when he was the only one in the home. The subject of his report lastly complained of vivid nightmares since the death of his grandfather. Sounded like a typical boring case of a 'haunted' house.

Seto sped to a small suburban neighborhood located just on the outskirts of Domino City, where his subject lived according to the address in the report. The tall man tried not to scoff as he thought of the unknown man's claims. He wondered if the allegations made by this Yuugi fellow were not just occurrences imagined in his mourning of his recently deceased relative; maybe he hoped for a sign from his late grandfather. If that was not the case, Seto thought, perhaps the kid had some deeply rooted psychological issues he needed professional help for. The psychology student wondered if the reason his professor had sent him on this investigation was to find evidence for his thesis work. As Seto questioned the link between mental health and beliefs in paranormal phenomena, this case could be perfect for him. Though, he hadn't handled a case of alleged paranormal activity for the university's parapsychology unit in months and Seto felt rusty in his skills.

After several long minutes of driving, Seto pulled up to a small, traditional Japanese style home in a quiet area situated halfway between the city and the countryside outside Domino. There were other houses around but they were spaced further apart then in the city. The young man navigated his motorcycle to park in the cramped entrance before the house's main gate. Seto got off the bike, grabbed his bag, and made his way passed the gate to the main door. Glancing around with his observant gaze, Seto noted that the home was old but well maintained. It was built of light wood and was very homely in appearance. A frown found its way to his lips at that thought and Seto moved to press the doorbell. He dreaded being there already and the meeting would not be over fast enough for his taste. Seto closed his eyes and recalled the last investigation assigned to him several months before, which turned out to be a waste of his and the parapsychology unit's time. The subject of case had been an old lady with noisy neighbors who she had believed were actually ghosts haunting her. Also, her supposed ability to communicate with the dead ended up being her simply speaking to her pet cat... Seto scowled a bit at the memory. Cases like that were the reason he worked so hard to disprove paranormal phenomena, because it was so foolish of people to believe in something that couldn't rationally exist or were merely the symptoms of a mental illness. The parapsychology unit itself investigated cases of alleged psychic powers, clairvoyance, telepathy and more, as well as the occasional reporting of a ghost haunting; so far the team had yet to face a genuine case. Science had disproven and dismantled numerous reported accounts of demonic possession, haunting, clairvoyance, psychic abilities, etc. They were all bogus claims. In particular, Seto bite his cheek at the idea of proclaimed psychics; it hit too close to home for him. It made bitter memories surface in his mind and his chest clenched, but he hurriedly pushed the thoughts aside.

Suddenly, the large wooden door before Seto opened to reveal his subject. The game design student, named Yuugi, stood dressed in a simple black t-shirt and dark jeans, a wide leather choker around his slim neck. The boy, who was at least a head shorter then Seto, glanced up at his guest and the taller man noted with a slight eye roll that his subject sported an outrageous style of spiked, tri-coloured hair; there was blond, red and black in his tall locks. The kid looked like some Japanese rock star and he was ridiculous. Seto chuckled and Yuugi, now pouting, crossed his arms and stared begrudgingly at the person before him.

"What's so funny?" He must be sick, Seto noted, as Yuugi' voice sounded unnaturally raspy. The taller of the two boys scoffed and smirked before he replied,

"Your hair's absurd, you know."

"Well, you're quite a charmer. Professor Ishtar was right." The shorter man sighed at his houseguest and Seto only stared nonchalantly in return. Now that he had a closer view of his host, Seto realized that besides the stupid hair, Yuugi Mutou was quite handsome. His gentle face made him look younger than his twenty years and he wasn't very tall or strongly built, but his eyes were his most striking feature. They were a deep shade of lavender and sparkled like amethyst gems, capturing Seto's undivided attention for whatever reason. Yuugi's gaze held Seto's just the same and it set a fluttering sensation in the taller boy's chest. He hadn't meant to stare at the other man awkwardly, and Yuugi was first to break the eye contact. The shorter boy he bowed his spiky head of hair. Seto didn't return the gesture, simply turning his gaze away from the involuntarily intense staring match. He could have sworn Yuugi had shuddered under his stare. The paranormal investigator cleared his throat, dropping the subject, and finally spoke up, his seriousness returning,

"I'm Seto Kaiba, a Graduate student with the parapsychology unit of Domino University. Professor Ishtar sent me to investigate the paranormal activity you've reported." Seto was brisk and formal, though it hurt his pride with the heat of a thousand suns every time he gave the same speech. He hated to have things be so formal, as they only wasted time in his opinion; the university and Professor Ishtar insisted on the formalities, especially when dealing with a topic as sensitive as the link between the occult and the human psyche. Case subjects could be particular about that type of stuff. The young man before him stared at him for several moments, large violet eyes searching, as if in a deep evaluation of Seto's character. It caused the latter to glower slightly in return. Yuugi stared at him for a moment longer before his lips lifted into a genuine, relieved smile that made the taller boy blink in confusion, his frustration momentarily forgotten.

The freshman student bowed and signaled for his guest to step inside. "I'm so glad you're here and it's great to meet you formally. Professor Ishtar told me you would be the one investigating my case. I'm Yuugi Mutou, first year in Graphic and Game Design-" Yuugi was cut off as Seto groaned in annoyance.

"Drop the formalities," the blue-eyed man hissed and stepped inside the cozy home, his gaze staring icily at the other boy. "I'm not here for pleasantries, Mutou. I'm here to do my job because I have to. I hate the idea that I even have to stay here in the first place." Yuugi flinched at his words and frowned, seemingly deflated by the investigator's attitude. Somewhere deep inside Seto, he felt an ache. He almost regretted treating his subject badly during their very first meeting. The graduate student was just so frustrated with his current predicament. Seto had never wanted to return to investigating any of many cases the parapsychology unit received on a daily basis. As one of the only groups examining alleged cases of paranormal or psychic activity in Central Japan, the team of ten graduate students was always overwhelmed with work. Seto was angry at the thought of wasting his time debunking people's cases of made up "paranormal" phenomena. They were always proven to be fabricated, usually for attention, or the occurrences were easily explained away by simple science. That was why Seto had become so intrigued by the flourishing science of parapsychology; he had wanted to prove that ghosts, demons, psychics and the lot were nonsense. Believing in the occult only hurt people and kept them from facing reality, a fact that hit too close to Seto's heart.

He blinked away his irritation and took a step back from the other student standing close to him. Yuugi hadn't noticed as he looked back at Seto, his eyes shining in curiosity, before he led him to a guest bedroom on the second floor of the house. The taller of the two men glanced around the old home as he padded his way up the staircase. The house seemed relatively clean, considering its only occupant was a young bachelor. Seto noted several rooms as he stepped onto the second storey of the house with Yuugi, which consisted of an office or study, a small bathroom and three bedrooms. Yuugi, who had been quiet since their exchange at the front door, led him to the smallest of the three sleeping quarters and opened the door.

"This is your room. You can use it while you're staying here, so I'll leave you to it. I'll be in the living room downstairs beside the entrance if you need me." Yuugi said gently, glancing up at Seto with an unreadable expression before the shorter man stepped aside and shuffled away hurriedly. Seto stood there as his case subject left, unexpectedly feeling like a jerk for treating the other man so coldly. The fleeting sense of guilt surprised the psychology student, as it had been a long time since any of his actions gave him cause for regret. Seto wasn't a sociopath, but he rarely cared for what other people thought or felt. It had been years since a similar feeling gripped him. Scolding a bit at the unwelcomed emotion, Seto dropped his large bag beside the neatly arranged futon by the window and left the room to search for Yuugi with an audio recorder and notepad in hand. He didn't want to give into the tiny part of him wanting to apologize to his host, so he pushed the thought to the side. _Might as well start working then_ , the young man concluded reluctantly.

Seto headed downstairs in search of the living space. As Yuugi said, he found the living room beside the entrance. He stepped into the decently sized room, spotting Yuugi sitting cross-legged on the floor at a rectangular table, his purple eyes gazing absently at a laptop's screen before him as he typed away. Seto stood silently in the doorway and observed the other man more carefully. His posture was relaxed, but his shoulders slumped in a discouraged fashion. His lips titled downwards into a pout and his eyes held a look of dejection and anxiety. For a reason, Seto thought that Yuugi was the kind of person who should never look sad, as it was a truly depressing sight to behold. He wanted to see the man smile, like he had when Seto first arrived. Giving a slight grimace, the older of the two pushed his bizarre thoughts aside and cleared his throat.

From his spot on the floor, Yuugi was jolted from his reverie and glanced up at Seto. The shorter boy gave a smile, albeit warily, and stood up.

"Sorry, you surprised me," he said. "I was trying to finish my work for my coding class. I love it, but it's long memorizing all of the codes..." He gave a small, sweet laugh that was lost in the tense air clinging between the two students. Seto looked back at him, his expression mostly stoic as his host nervously fiddled with a silver chain hidden under his t-shirt. He decided to take pity on the other man and lifted the audio recorder and notepad in his hands, his voice cool as he explained,

"I would like to take a tour of the house. I need you to follow me and describe all of the instances of activity you've experienced in each room. I would like descriptions of the events, time and dates if possible." Seto watched carefully as Yuugi nodded his agreement and the former pressed the recording button on the audio device in his hand. He stated the time, date and location, for the sake of recordkeeping, before turning to Yuugi and motioning him to start. The younger man looked around the living room. The space was tidy and furnished sparingly with bamboo mats on the floor, the small table Yuugi had previously sat at, a television and entertainment center off to the side, a plain sofa and an open sliding door leading to what seemed like the kitchen. The game design student hugged his arms to himself and looked at Seto.

"Well," Yuugi started hesitantly, his voice raspy and laced with discomfort, "I hear weird noises outside this room if I'm in here late at night... Sometimes, its footsteps, but I once heard a voice speaking. I couldn't tell what it was saying, as it wasn't speaking in Japanese." A frown marred his soft, attractive face and Seto had to look away, keeping his tone impassive as he stated,

"Well, it was most likely just a person lurking outside on the property to startle you. It's the most logical explanation," The older man rationalized, but his host shook his spiky head of hair, frowning some more.

\- "But why would a person do that? There hasn't been an instance of crime in this area for over twenty years. Wouldn't there be a more efficient way of scaring me then sneaking around outside my house at night?" Yuugi was not convinced by Seto's explanation, which annoyed the latter; he was the expert after all.

"Beside," he continued, "I checked outside every time that the noises occurred and there were no footprints in the soil." Seto glared slightly and wrote down some notes before motioning the other boy to continue the tour. Yuugi, who observed him inquisitively, lead the investigator around his home as he patiently pointed out the different areas of paranormal activity. The events he described were much the same as those in the living room; footsteps, voices, occasional displacement of items for no reason. Seto said nothing or made any remarks, only noting every incident in his notepad. In his mind though, the young man wanted to ridicule Yuugi. There were rational explanations to all of the activity he had witnessed, but it seemed that he truly believed it to be of paranormal origins. Seto couldn't help but scoff at the idea.

They finished the tour in front of Yuugi's bedroom, where the shorter boy gave identical complaints as before. As Seto watched, Yuugi glanced around the hallway, purple eyes attempting to recall every detail correctly, when they landed on a previously unacknowledged room, situated beside his bedroom. Seto blinked as the colour in his fellow student's face drained slightly and his eyes widened in something akin to dread. Tilting his head in a mix of curiosity and worry, the taller boy stared at the door to the unmarked room.

"What's in that space?" Seto asked quietly, his icy gaze moving back to Yuugi as the latter stood unmoving beside him. The shorter boy's attention remained fixated on the wooden door and he gave no reply, which led his houseguest to snap impatiently,

"Mutou, I'm talking to you. What is that room?" Yuugi blinked, waking from his stupor, and turned to the other man, his eyes hesitant as he answered,

"It's my grandfather's old bedroom..." He explained softly. His face held anxiety, but his gentle features were also darkened with sadness. The question prodded a sore topic for the younger man, Seto realized, as he remembered that the elder Mutou had passed away only two months before, according to the information he found in Professor Ishtar's report. He instinctively bit the inside of his cheek; Yuugi's grief was obvious and it stirred emotions in Seto's own heart that he badly needed _and_ wanted to stay buried. Taking in a deep breath, Seto instead asked with a tone of seeming indifference,

"Has there been any 'paranormal' activity in that room since his death?"

\- "I..." Yuugi licked his lips nervously, which caught the psychology student's eye. "I haven't been able to go in there since he passed away." He sniffled gently and turned his face away, hiding it from Seto's view. "I finally talked myself into doing it about three days ago. I was going to clean and begin packing his stuff that night, but when I was-" Yuugi bit his lip and stopped mid-sentence. Seto blinked and gave the other student a pointed look.

"When you started...?" The paranormal investigator prompted cautiously, which earned a grimace from his subject. The latter bowed his head and closed his eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it." Yuugi replied quietly, his face giving away his internal pain. Seto's brows furrowed angrily and he stepped instinctively closer to the shorter boy before him, the former lifting his head up to stare at him worriedly. Staring down at Yuugi, Seto warned in a low, dark tone,

"I swear, if you're wasting my time with this nonsense, I'm just going to leave now. You can't be straight-forward with me and it makes me wonder if what you're claiming has any truth to it."

\- "I'm not making any of this up!" Yuugi said back, his violet eyes giving away his growing annoyance for the man in front of him, "I just wonder if I should even tell you when you don't seem to believe in the paranormal anyway."

Seto narrowed his eyes and stepped even closer to Yuugi, a rant hanging on the tip of his tongue, but he suddenly stopped. He looked down at the shorter man, noticing the lack of distance between them. A lump settled in his throat and Seto moved his gaze upwards, locking it with Yuugi's. A long moment of loaded silence passed between them. The air was stiff with something unsaid. Like their first encounter downstairs, Yuugi moved first and parted his lips to say something, but Seto stopped his train of thought by stepping back. It broke the spell over the both of them and the taller man took the opportunity.

"I have all of the information I need for now. I'm heading to bed." He didn't know what to say or do, so he turned away, leaving no room for questions as he entered his assigned bedroom, closing the door firmly behind him. He hadn't glanced at Yuugi's face, but he could only imagine his expression.

Sighing, Seto sat down on the small room's futon and started undressing slowly, his mind clouded with fatigue from the last few hours' events. It was late at night, almost 22:00 and he didn't want to deal with Yuugi or his problems anymore. Instead, he changed into a t-shirt and long sleep pants before lying back on his makeshift bed. Closing his eyes tiredly, he touched the locket resting on his chest. Within a few minutes, he was fast asleep.

* * *

Seto loathed the nights when _that_ particular nightmare would come to haunt him in his sleep. It always left him with a sense of powerlessness, dread and overwhelming despair. When he awoke, he would be sweating, gasping for air or even crying; it was Seto at his weakest. He hated himself for it. The dream was no different tonight. The young man stood before a freshly dug grave site, in the center of a desolate, familiar cemetery. Seto knew what scene would come next as he looked down at the too-small dark wood casket lying open before him. He couldn't see its contents, but his heart sank in his figurative stomach; he knew what awaited him if he looked into the casket. His mind shouted for him to stay back, to run away from the scene, but he couldn't. His dream-state body moved forward, approaching the wooden box. Seto felt his breath catch in his throat and he choked as he stared at the battered body of a child lying in wake. The child was smaller and younger than him and dressed in clean clothes, his long black hair arranged to strategically hide the bruising on his face. He seemed peaceful and Seto wished he could fool himself into believing that, if he hadn't known the cause of the boy's death. The older boy took a step back and gasped for air in fear as the little child in the casket abruptly sat up. He stared at Seto, his dark eyes reproachful.

" _Why didn't you save me? Why didn't you come and find me? Why did you let me die, Seto?_ " The child asked. His voice was eerie and distant as he held Seto with an accusatory glare. The latter crumbled to the grass beneath his feet and cried in pain as the memories flooded his mind, tormenting him.

" _I'm sorry! I couldn't save you, but I tried so hard. If only we hadn't listened to her, you would still be alive! Mokuba!_ "

Seto woke from the nightmare with a gasp, his lungs desperately searching for air. He sat up on the futon beneath him, his neck sweaty and his hands going to his face as he remained paralysed by the terror he had just relived; a terror he had experienced frequently since he was thirteen years old. He tried to calm his breathing using one of the many relaxation techniques he learnt in class. After a while, his heart calmed and he was able to stand from his bed. Eight long years of the nightmare's repeated visits and a degree in the understanding of the human mind had never lessened the fear and distress Seto felt afterwards. When he glanced at his Smartphone, the little digital clock indicated it was only 2:00. A quick peek outside the window confirmed the time, as the sky was still midnight blue in colour. Seto watched as tiny raindrops hit the windowsill and sighed. When had it started raining, he wondered. He shouldn't be surprised, as the season of heavy rain quickly approached Central and Southern Japan. The young man didn't mind the rain, usually finding comfort in it, but it only made him feel more morose after his terrorizing dream.

Standing up and quietly exiting the guestroom, Seto padded his way down the unfamiliar steps to the entryway and turned to his right. He needed some water before he tried to go back to sleep to quench his parched throat. He knew he should have just asked the home's owner, Yuugi, before getting anything from the kitchen, but Seto let the idea drop. It was just water after all; he shouldn't wake the younger man for something like that. Instead, he found his way into the kitchen, through the doorway at the end of the living room he spotted earlier in the evening. It was difficult to navigate an unknown space in the dark, but Seto followed the weak moonlight pouring in through the windows. His bare feet made contact with cool tiles and he was in the kitchen. Blue eyes adjusted to the dim light and their owner looked around curiously. Seto nearly jumped in surprise when he spotted a vaguely familiar silhouette in the dark. Yuugi, in a set of blue pajamas and with his hair in disarray, stood before the long countertop lining the back wall. Seto called to him, the other boy's surname like a loud question in the quiet space, but got no answer. Mildly irritated, Seto stepped closer and easily looked over the shorter man's shoulder to whatever he seemed fixated on. It took a moment to recognize the object in the dark, but the taller boy realized it was a butcher's block full of knives. It was such a mundane kitchen item, but as he glanced at Yuugi's face, the way the latter stared so fixedly at it made Seto uneasy.

He waved his hand before Yuugi's face, getting no reaction from him. Frowning, Seto touched his shoulder and shook it gently, calling his name once again,

"Mutou, what are you doing?"

When the shorter boy turned to face him, the houseguest could have sworn he saw a flash of red in those lavender orbs under the faint light provided by a nearby window. It surprised him and the taller man dropped his hand. Yuugi then blinked and looked up at Seto, his gaze its normal lovely purple colour. Shaking his head lightly, Seto pushed his concern to the back of his mind as he stepped away from Yuugi and asked,

"What are you doing down here? It's 2 o'clock in the morning."

\- "Is it really?" Yuugi asked, dumbfounded. He looked around the kitchen, apparently confused, before settling back on Seto with worry in his eyes.

"I woke up because I had a nightmare, but I don't know why I'm down here..." Seto didn't reply, only wondering if he should mention the whole incident with the knife block moments ago. Whatever had happened, he decided, would have to be pushed aside. He was tired and wanted to go back to sleep. He didn't want to deal with Yuugi at the moment. As if reading his houseguest's mind, Yuugi piped up from beside him,

"And you, Kaiba? Why are you down here so late?" The shorter boy asked curiously.

\- "I was thirsty." Seto replied flatly, making no mention of his own torturous nightmare. It was none of Yuugi's business and the psychology student wasn't exactly lying. He watched his host cringe slightly before he turned to refrigerator, returning with a cold bottle of water, which he handed to Seto.

"I'm sorry. I should have asked you before you went to bed. I'm such a bad host." Yuugi gave an apologetic smile, which tugged at Seto's heart unexpectedly. The feeling made the older boy glower, mostly at himself, and he turned after mumbling thanks under his breath. He quickly headed out of the kitchen. Somewhere in his conscious, Seto realized that he should have made sure Yuugi went back to his bedroom without trouble. The scene he stumbled upon, with the other student staring so intently at the set of knives in the kitchen, disturbed Seto. Something about the whole picture was terribly wrong. The image of Yuugi with red eyes clung to his memory and made him uncomfortable. He must have just imagined things, Seto thought, but he still couldn't shake the haunting picture.

* * *

 _Hello. This is my first long fanfic in several years and only my second Rivalship fic. I tried to keep Kaiba and Yuugi in character, but this is an AU, so some OCCness is to be expected. I've always wanted to write a paranormal based story, so I hope y'all can enjoy it as much as I do._

 _Reviews are appreciated. Enjoy :)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Rating:** T

 **Chapter Warnings:** Mentions of death and child abuse, implied violence, general creepiness and supernatural themes

* * *

Seto woke the following morning from a restless sleep. Instead of the same images of his dead brother haunting him, the paranormal investigator had been plagued by visions of a familiar short man with red eyes. He hadn't slept much and was incredibly grumpy, but he got up regardless. When he glanced at his phone, it was 9:00. Seto decided to head back to his apartment for a shower before going to the university to conduct some research. He got dressed, picked up his bag and stepped out of the guest room, standing in the chilly hallway as he looked around for any hint that Yuugi was still home. The young man figured that if his host attended any morning classes, he would already be gone to school. His hypothesis was confirmed when Seto headed downstairs and into the kitchen to find a bowl of some breakfast food covered in plastic wrap on the dining table with a note from Yuugi. Seto pushed aside the slightly burnt offering of food and headed outside.

* * *

After a short stop at his apartment, Seto parked his motorcycle in the car lot of the university. He settled on an empty spot near the back of the lot, where he would get less wayward looks for his choice of vehicle. While he didn't care what people thought, it didn't stop him from getting annoyed at people staring at him like he was a member of some biker gang. Scoffing, Seto headed inside one of the multiple buildings on campus and followed the familiar path leading to the university library. He wanted to research the history of the Mutou residence to check if any of the previous owners had made claims of paranormal or unexplained activity on the property. As he sat at one of the many computers littering the spacious library, Seto remained highly sceptical of Yuugi's allegations. If there was any cause for paranormal occurrences in the house, he could think of no source that he could recognize. He thought back to the hundreds of articles on haunted objects that had served as his choice of literature during his undergraduate studies. With that, he had to wonder again if the younger man had been lying about or imagining everything. Perhaps Yuugi was only hopelessly grieving over the loss of his grandfather, as the taller man previously thought. Though, Seto recalled the bizarre incident in Yuugi's kitchen the night before and the eerie red glow of the other man's eyes. Even hours later, Seto couldn't quite shake the mental image. Sighing, he decided to focus on the task at hand before figuring else anything out.

* * *

For the next week, Seto hunkered down in the university library researching Domino City's property records and looking back in time to find all of the previous owners of Yuugi's small home. The psychology student retrieved all of the needed paperwork, but found no claims of unexplained events from the residence's previous owners. Though there had been a death on the property some seventy years before, which was ruled an accident at the time, none of the homeowners following it had complained of paranormal phenomena. According to the city's database, the Mutou clan bought the property twenty years after the death and the home had been in the family since. There had been no other bizarre occurrences ion the property since. Frustrated by the lack of any real leads, Seto turned his attention to working outside of his research. He held a job as a part-time teaching aide to some of psychology professors' charged with undergraduate classes. He helped with correcting assignments and course planning, but stayed away from teaching in an actual classroom. Seto wanted to be a doctor of psychology, not a professor; he didn't have the patience needed to handle a large group of snot-nosed freshmen who barely paid attention to the lessons they wasted good money on to attend. The one time he had helped Professor Ishtar, his mentor, in her _Introduction to Psychology_ class, Seto caused a student to cry after belittling them in front of the whole group. He felt no regret for it, as the girl had been a whiny little brat complaining about the class' work load, but the experience had shown to Professor Ishtar that her brilliant student was not cut out for teaching. Thus, Seto spent the week researching or correcting assignments. He didn't mind the job as much as he had first assumed he would and it helped pay his bills.

During that time, Seto spent several nights sleeping over at the Mutou residence, where he had minimal contact with Yuugi. His case subject was always courteous towards him when they did meet, trying his hardest to make his houseguest feel welcomed. He never tried to force a conversation and he left Seto alone when he asked, which the latter was grateful for. Yuugi also prepared dinner for the both of them every evening Seto had visited, but the psychology graduate never ate with him. He either intentionally got back to the house late to avoid eating with the shorter boy, or made sure to eat before arriving. Seto knew he was acting like a jerk by rudely rejecting every attempt Yuugi had made to be kind to him and he could see it was hurting him, but Seto tried not to care. It wasn't in his plans to make friends while working on the Mutou case. He preferred his solitude to catering to somebody else's wants and needs constantly. Beside, every time Seto got too close to his subject or made eye contact with those captivating violet orbs of his, it made him uncomfortable in a way he couldn't define. He kept his distance; it was safer for both of them.

The paranormal specialist had also started collecting data for his investigation. Every night he visited the Mutou home, he had set up cameras, audio recorders and motion detectors to capture any unusual activity around the home. Yuugi had even insisted that Seto let him help with the equipment's set up one evening, because he felt bad seeing him do all of the work, and the older man caved. He was unable to refuse Yuugi's request under the stare of those persistent lavender eyes of his. Instead, the taller of the two men coolly warned the other to be careful when handling the electronics, as they belonged to the parapsychology unit and were costly to replace. Of the several nights' worth of data, Seto only found enough evidence to confirm Yuugi's previous claims of odd noises in the house. Several of the clips contained odd sounds not produced by Yuugi or Seto, and were typically located outside the shorter student's bedroom. Video evidence had shown that Yuugi had not been the cause of the noises, but Seto still felt as unsatisfied with the collected audio and video clips as he did with the rest of his research for the case. Weird sounds in an old house proved nothing of paranormal or supernatural origins. Though, Seto struggled to explain the constant chill in the residence. He had questioned Yuugi about it, only for the homeowner to have no conclusive answer. It wasn't that inconvenient, in the damper summer months of Monsoon season, but it did make the paranormal investigator's skin crawl unpleasantly every time he stepped foot in the home.

One afternoon, a Friday, Seto headed to Professor Ishtar's office to deliver a batch of corrected midterm papers. Luckily for the student, the older woman was still situated in her office despite the late afternoon hour. Seto knocked on the door and it opened moments later. With a grim smile from his professor, the graduate student was waved inside and sat down across the large desk from the Egyptian woman, after placing down his stack of papers. Isis also sat and glanced at Seto curiously.

"Kaiba," the professor greeted smoothly, "how are you today? How's your investigation into the Mutou case?"

\- "I'm fine, Professor. I've made little progress on the case." Seto replied flatly, trying to keep his need for a smart remark under tight wraps. He knew he stood on thin ice with his mentor since his assignment to Yuugi's case.

\- "Well, what have you found until now?"

\- "Nothing more then what you wrote down in the initial report. Property records offered no new information and the audio or visual evidence I've collected only confirms that the Mutou home is indeed noisy." Seto couldn't help the bit of sarcasm he let slip.

"Well, I know you will be able to find the roots of the problem soon, Kaiba," Isis assured, ignoring her student's remark, which caused him to glower in annoyance.

"But, remember that no matter what you find, try and be compassionated to Mister Mutou. The parapsychology unit's mission is to investigate, but also assist those affected by the paranormal, regardless of our own beliefs on the topic." She silenced Seto with an elegant wave of her hand as he opened his mouth to interject. "I know you have many reasons not to believe in psychic phenomena, from scientific fact to your personal experiences." The word 'experiences' made Seto's stomach sink and his fists clenched in his lap.

Professor Ishtar regarded her student for a moment, a frown marring her smooth, tanned features. She leaned forward in her seat, her demeanour switching from a worried teacher to that of the inquisitive doctor she actually was, before quietly asking, "Have you ever considered counselling? It could help you deal with your brother's-"

Seto stood up abruptly, his blue eyes filled with icy fire. He slammed his hand on the teacher's desk and spit out angrily,

"Is it fun for you to nose around in my personal life, _Professor_? It's not entertaining to me whatsoever." Seto shook before Isis, the mere mention of his brother setting a burning blaze of anger and pain to his soul. He never wanted to talk him; it was enough that he saw him in his nightmares almost every night.

"Seto," Isis raised her hands in a gesture of peace, her expression calm if not a little sad for her student. She acted like she would if dealing with an irate patient. "I was merely suggesting it. I don't want your grief to affect your work more than it already has. Your ideas for a Masters' thesis were strong when you joined our unit and you always were one of the brightest students in our department. I just feel like you lost your way and sight of your original mission because you want a sort of revenge or vindication for your loss."

Seto growled and grabbed his bag, storming out of his professor's office before slamming the door behind him, managing to scare the poor secretary nearby. Isis sat back and sighed, her dark eyes staring at the door before her. She shook her head and closed her eyes. Even if Seto had never mentioned what had happened to his younger sibling, Isis _knew_. She could sense the pain radiating from her student like a dark aura. The woman could only hope that her brilliant mentee would soon find peace and self-forgiveness for the tragedy he had no part in.

* * *

Rain began to fall from the sky the instant Seto stepped outside the psychology department's main building. He tried to calm the racing of his heart and the anger-induced shaking in his hands. He had never mentioned his past to his professor and while his brother's death had never been a secret, due to the media coverage at the time, Seto still guarded the details of the crime. It was for the sake of his little brother's honor and his own sanity and guilty conscious. He hated to have the topic brought up, as it only reopened old wounds that never quite healed. Kicking hard at a wayward rock in his way, the long-limbed young man headed back to his motorcycle, not caring about the rain now pouring down around him. As he walked across the parking lot, his blue gaze remained fixed on his bike until a flash of red, black and blond passed in his peripheral vision. Turning his head, Seto caught sight of Yuugi as the shorter boy walked several meters ahead of him, drenched by the downpour. His previous anger lessened a bit at the sight of the poor wet student and Seto couldn't quite catch himself before he called out to the other boy. Cursing under his breath, he watched as Yuugi turned and spotted him, a small smile lifting the former's lips. Seto's stomach clenched for a moment before he stepped closer. He wasn't even certain why he had called Yuugi.

"What are you doing in this rain, Mutou?" Seto asked in what he hoped was a normal tone, trying to seem nonchalant in his questioning. Yuugi looked up at him and laughed gently.

"I'm going home. My friend Jounouchi usually brings me after class on Fridays, but he had to leave earlier for a work emergency. I don't have a car, as you know, and buses stopped travelling to the area I live in an hour ago. So, I'll walk." He might shrug it off, but Seto could see Yuugi's shoulders slump as the rain became more persistent in its assault.

"That's ridiculous." Seto said and instantly wanted to kick himself as he grabbed the shorter man's arm. He tugged him to his nearby motorcycle. He didn't know what suddenly possessed him, but Seto uncovered his bike from under its protective plastic sheeting and dug into his under-seat compartment before handing a surprised Yuugi his spare helmet. The taller boy wanted to take back his action and speed away in his embarrassment, but he was already too far gone, as his shorter companion only hesitated for a moment before taking the offered headgear.

Grumbling under his breath, Seto swung his long leg over the seat of his motorcycle and slid on his helmet. As Yuugi climbed onto the seat behind him after securing the spare helmet over his unruly head of hair, Seto wasn't sure if he was more annoyed at his passenger for not refusing his offer or at himself for spontaneously springing _said offer_ in the first place. He groaned lowly and shook his head, kicking the pedal after igniting the engine. The bike roared to life under them and Yuugi gripped the edges of the seat as Seto manoeuvred his motorcycle out of its parking spot and towards a nearby exit.

Once on the street, Seto pressed on the gas pedal and went as fast the speed limit allowed. As they sped up, he heard a soft squeak from the seat behind him and felt arms secure themselves tightly around his waist. The gesture was unexpected and the taller of the two boys only groaned again. He wanted to feel bothered by the manner with which Yuugi clung to him, but instead he found the hold he had around him stirred an unnamed emotion in his chest. The feeling made his heart skip and his mouth dry. He was a grown man and he was acting like a middle school student holding hands with their first date, Seto thought depressingly. His day couldn't get any worse. He could never admit to somewhat enjoying the tight hold Yuugi had around his waist as he drove them back to the younger man's home. He couldn't even explain his body's reaction to Yuugi and it frustrated him.

Several minutes later, the pair arrived at the small, quaint home on the outskirts of Domino City. Seto held his composure and did not jump off the motorcycle seat as soon as he parked the beast of a machine before Yuugi's residence. The rain had greatly lessened in their area compared to its raging assault minutes away in Downtown Domino City. The taller man removed his helmet, shaking out his wet brown hair. Yuugi, who was still holding on tightly to his waist, finally let go and climbed off the bike first, turning away from his impromptu driver. Seto watched him silently as the other shook out his hair after pulling off his helmet, his multi-coloured mane a wet mess, and frowned when Yuugi turned to hand him his borrowed headgear, his face red but his smile bright. Seto wrote off the other man's blush as the thrill of riding on the motorcycle.

"That was amazing," the game design student laughed lightly. Seto bit his tongue to keep from replying. Yuugi's laughter made his stomach flip and he hated himself a little bit more for feeling that. Saying nothing, for fear of lashing out or betrayed his current thought pattern, Seto took the helmet and tossed it with his own on the motorcycle's handle, before standing with his bag to head inside the dwelling.

"Come on. Get inside before you get any wetter from the rain, because I won't babysit you if you get sick, kid." The older of the two said in his usual flat tone. Yuugi's voice sounded much less raspy then it had the week before and it would be a shame if the shorter man fell sick again. Seto heard his companion hurry behind him, huffing out a reply.

"I'm not a kid! I'm twenty years old. You can't be that much older than me to be calling me that." Yuugi's lavender eyes darkened in annoyance and Seto chuckled as he turned his gaze away.

"I'm twenty-two. I'm older and I'm your upperclassman, so I have a right to call you kid." Seto answered with a mocking smile, but the expression came off as more of a teasing one. He found that he enjoyed small banter with Yuugi, as the shorter boy, when angered, was amusing to watch. He was like a furious cotton ball, with the way his red cheeks puffed out slightly. Seto cringed when it crossed his mind that his host also looked endearing when irritated.

After a quick change of clothing, the two young men headed into the kitchen, Yuugi's annoyance seemingly forgotten as he scrubbed his wet hair with a towel and wandered to the refrigerator in search of food. Seto watched from the doorway as the purple eyed man hummed, looked at their selection, and then closed the appliance's door abruptly.

"I almost forgot!" Yuugi said before hurrying past Seto and out of the kitchen. Despite his lacking height, he almost knocked the taller man over in his haste with little effort and Seto huffed, miffed. As he followed his host to the living room, the psychology student realized that his anger from his earlier encounter with Professor Ishtar had all but faded. He tried not to think that the lack of said emotion had anything to do with his spiky haired case subject, but Seto couldn't even fool himself. He was reluctant to admit he felt somewhat comfortable with Yuugi, despite their lack of in-depth interactions. The shorter student had always been kind to him and respected his need for personal space, even when the former had obviously wanted to engage him. He put up with Seto's attitude when he had no reason to. The taller boy realized he might have been wrong about his small host after all.

The blue-eyed man blinked in surprise when Yuugi reappeared in the living space with what seemed to be a medium sized wire cage with a solid plastic bottom in his hands. Placing it on the floor near the floor-height table, the violet-eyed man kneeled and opened the top of the cage, pulling out a small, black rabbit. _He has a freaking rabbit_ , Seto thought as he looked on in mild stupor. Yuugi cradled the small fluffy creature in his arms, petting its long downturned ears. He looked up at Seto from his spot on the floor and grinned before motioning to the animal in his hold,

"This is Yami." Yuugi explained as if his houseguest should be interested in the rabbit's identity, but Seto's blank expression didn't stop the shorter boy from continuing,

"I got her after Grandpa died. I've been keeping her in my room so she wouldn't bother you, but I think she needs some exercise." He then put the pet on the bamboo mat covered floor and smiled as it wiggled its little black nose and looked around curiously before hopping away. Yuugi pulled a yellow rubber ball and a piece of carrot from the cage beside him and placed them near Yami. The shorter man then stood and smiled to Seto, gesturing to the kitchen.

"I'll go make dinner for us. Just keep an eye on her, please?" Without waiting for Seto's reply, Yuugi dashed into the kitchen and left the taller man staring at the dark fluff ball snacking away on its carrot. Seto was speechless for several moments until he managed to open his mouth.

"Mutou, if your rabbit eats your electronics, it's not my fault. I'm a paranormal investigator, not a pet sitter."

The only reply Seto received was laughter from the kitchen doorway as Yuugi stuck his head out, grinning.

"She'll be fine. Please just make sure she doesn't hop away." With that, the homeowner disappeared into the kitchen again. His houseguest stood by the small table staring warily at the rabbit hopping across the floor nearby. Carefully, Seto sat down and watched the furry creature make its way towards him. The tall young man had always been guarded around animals, as he never had one of his own and house pets were uncommon in this part of Japan. He simply didn't know how to behave around them. Seto could easily dissect the human mind, but he had no understanding of animals. It was a good thing his calling in life hadn't been veterinary medicine.

He blinked when Yuugi appeared beside him with a pot of some steaming stew and he looked to down to find himself petting Yami the rabbit gently between her long ears. Huffing a bit, Seto turned away from the pet, embarrassed. Yuugi only smiled at him before setting down some bowls and utensils.

"I knew you two would get along." The shorter boy hummed happily. Seto only gave a grumble in reply and looked at the meal before them. It smelt decent; better than some of the other dishes his case subject had prepared since his time here. Yuugi obviously wasn't much of a cook, but he was headstrong. With a glance to the kitchen area, Seto noted the mess of pots and what looked like an open book on the countertop. He glanced back at Yuugi as the latter began to eat while looking over a textbook for class. Had the other man taken extra time and trouble to make a modest meal for his guest? Seto frowned at the thought, as he had been nothing but ungrateful for the meals Yuugi had prepared so far, but that didn't seem to deter the younger man from making the effort.

"Thank you, for the food I mean." Seto said awkwardly, causing Yuugi to glance at him with a mouth full of stew before he swallowed and smiled.

"I figured since you haven't eaten any of the other food I've made before, I should actually try and follow a recipe. I looked around in the storage room and found one of my late grandmother's old recipe books. I hope it turned out well, since I'm not usually very good at cooking." He gave a sheepish laugh and Seto looked away, pushing past the lump in his throat before tasting the food before him. The flavour was surprisingly good and the older boy had no trouble continuing to eat. It felt nice to enjoy food so carefully prepared for him by someone else, even when Seto didn't deserve such courtesy. He felt even more like a jerk for how he had behaved towards Yuugi up until that point, but he didn't understand why the other boy tried so hard to be accommodating or to befriend him. Yuugi owed Seto nothing; even for the work the latter did researching into the supposed paranormal activity in the former's home.

The psychology student gazed at his companion seated across the small table from him; Yuugi's attention was on the large book before him and his fingers fiddled idly with a silver chain hanging under his usual choker around his neck. He looked exhausted, Seto noted. Dark purple circles marred his undereyes and the younger man barely seemed to be able to focus on the textbook as his gaze shifted restlessly over the words before it. In the back of Seto's mind, a piece of information pulled at his memory, an possible explanation for Yuugi's current state, but try as he might he couldn't remember. He didn't feel it was his place to ask about it either, as the pair weren't really friends. Seto also didn't want to give the impression he cared too much or wanted to pry, so the psychology student turned his attention to the necklace around Yuugi's neck. When he looked closer, he thought he caught a glimpse of purple on the other man's neck just over his collar, but quickly wrote it off as a trick of the light when Yuugi pulled the chain out from under his long-sleeved gray shirt. Two silver rings, one slightly bigger than the other, hung on the delicately crafted necklace of the same metal. Curious, Seto wondered about the significance of jewellery to his host. A thought crossed his mind and left a bitter taste in his mouth; perhaps Yuugi had a special someone. The shorter man would not have mentioned it and the latter's relationship status was none of Seto's business, but the idea nevertheless made him scowl. He turned his head away from Yuugi as the latter toyed with the rings on his chain and finished his meal quietly.

* * *

Several days of research, studying and work passed as Seto stayed with Yuugi in the latter's home, both young men settling into a routine. Most nights, the older student would arrive at the residence and have dinner with its owner. Sometimes, they would both study quietly; Seto still attended a few classes even if his thesis work had been put on hold. Sometimes, the boys would chat idly. It had been uncomfortable for Seto at first, but he soon opened up a little as Yuugi asked questions about his academic career. Seto had revealed that he'd graduated from high school early and as class valedictorian, only to start and finish his undergraduate studies in less than two years, again at the top of his program. He didn't mean to brag, but Seto had always been proud of his academic skills. The taller man knew he was a genius. It had been something his mother had always praised him for, before she died. The thought made his heart ache, but the psychology graduate pushed it aside. At least it gave him the drive to work towards his goal of becoming of a licensed psychologist and parapsychology expert, much like his mentor Isis Ishtar. Seto would rather die than admit it, but his professor inspired him greatly.

In turn, Seto had learnt of Yuugi's desire to become a game developer. While the older of the two boys first scoffed at the thought, he realized that game design was Yuugi's true passion. It had taken the shorter man a year after finishing high school to find his calling, as he explained, but he discovered it because of his late grandfather. Since his youth, Yuugi's grandfather had exposed his grandson to all types of games he'd collected during his career as a historian. In turn, the young man always loved games, but never thought it could be a viable career option. But after working for a year in a video game store in Downtown Domino, Yuugi realized his calling had been in front of him the whole time. His Grandpa had only encouraged him and the shorter man soon inscribed in Domino University's game design program. Yuugi hadn't regretted his decision since.

Seto grew more comfortable around Yuugi during their talks and the newfound ease left him confused. From the start, he had been adamant about not wanting to make friends with his case subject. Now, after a few weeks of knowing each other, they had grown closer and it made Seto uneasy, feeling so vulnerable with someone else. He hadn't opened up to anyone since his mother and brother's untimely deaths eight years before for fear of being hurt, or worse, facing loss again. It was a terrorizing sentiment and Seto couldn't figure out how he felt about it, so he kept most of himself locked away from Yuugi.

* * *

Late one evening, again a Friday, Seto arrived at the Mutou residence to find his small case subject in the kitchen singing to some absurd American pop song while the latter washed dishes in the sink. Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Seto placed his progress report for his ongoing investigation on the large dining table before heading upstairs to the guest room to dispose of his bags. While Yuugi's singing voice was not unpleasant, the music it sang to was obnoxious and not to Seto's taste. He also didn't want to be around when Yuugi found the envelope full of yen Seto had attached to the report. The older boy had felt bad for all of the food the younger had purchased, and sometimes wasted, during his stay, so Seto decided to pay the other student back. He already knew Yuugi would refuse the money, so he limited his ability to do so by disappearing upstairs.

The paranormal investigator stepped into his assigned room and dropped his bag by the door, staring at the neatly arranged pile of electronics by the futon. While he truly doubted their usefulness, Seto continued to collect audio and visual data every night he spent in Yuugi's home. The collected clips continued to show odd noises in the house late at night, when its two residents were asleep. Seto could have sworn he caught a bit of indistinguishable speech from the audio recorder positioned in the second floor hallway a few days before, but otherwise the data offered no notable evidence. The investigator moved to set up a video camera with an infrared lens in the hallway before the bedrooms, as he had many nights before. He also set up the audio recorder. Most of the more credible cases of paranormal activity he had studied caught evidence on such devices, which was why he used them. After setting up his laptop and linking the equipment, Seto stood back and looked over his work. Unsure of what more to do, he settled on the two electronics for now. He sighed and wondered if all of his research was for nothing. The thought of Yuugi lying still crept at the back of his mind, but Seto pushed it aside. The shorter man showed no signs of lying so far, except for on the first night of his investigation. Seto was more concerned that he wouldn't be able to give the other student any sort of answers to his problems, even if the problem was Yuugi himself.

Looking around the dimly lit hallway, Seto's eyes settled on the wooden door of the only room in the house he had yet to visit; Yuugi's late grandfather's bedroom. The young man's dark brows furrowed and he stepped closer to the silent room. He recalled Yuugi's reaction on the first night of his investigation, after their initial tour of the residence. Something in the Elder Mutou's room had scared Yuugi before Seto's arrival, recalling the other's reluctance to even speak about the matter. Regardless of the threat being genuine or imagined, the memory peaked Seto's curiosity. He quietly opened the door and looked inside the dark room, its air musty from disuse. Reaching out to flip the switch of the ceiling light up, Seto let his eyes adjust and glanced around. The space seemed tidy and normal, with a large bed in the middle and a desk attached to a wide bookcase, which was littered with literature. On the floor laid several cardboard boxes obviously packed by Yuugi. Nothing seemed out of place, except for the unreasonably low temperature of the room, much like the hallway outside it. Rubbing his hands together for warmth, Seto chalked the cold up to the lack of heating in the room. The faint sound of music coming from the kitchen stopped and he turned to leave before Yuugi came up to check on him, but something caught the investigator's attention from the corner of his eye.

The man looked back and noticed a gold glint. Curious, Seto stepped over to a box in the midst of the clutter and found a medium sized gold rectangle. Knowing he shouldn't pry into a dead man's belongings, Seto still bent down and picked up the object, which was a gold box in the shape of ancient Egyptian sarcophagus with hieroglyphics littering its surface. Giving a low hum, Seto opened the box to uncover a bizarre, inverted pyramid shaped pendant. He reached out to touch it when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Kaiba! I'm not taking the money, so you can just... What are you doing in here?" Yuugi stood behind Seto, his usual cheery tone gone and annoyance plain in the harsh tilt of his brows. He glared at him, clearly mad to find his guest breeching his grandfather's privacy. Seto stood like a deer caught in the glare of an oncoming car's headlights. He struggled to say something so Yuugi opened his mouth to speak; perhaps to kick Seto out of the house for his intrusion, when his eyes fell on the artifact between the latter's hands. The shorter boy's mouth snapped shut and he stepped back, his violet eyes wide and his face paling. In turn, Seto looked down at the pendant in his hold and lifted it from its box. The metal object was freezing, almost painful to the touch and Seto winced as he dropped it on the floor. Yuugi, who had been eerily still, jumped as the gold object landed on the bamboo mat flooring. The taller of the two boys inched closer to his host, putting his hand on the shorter boy's shoulder. Yuugi hardly moved in response to the touch.

"Mutou?" Seto shook Yuugi's shoulder lightly, causing the other boy to clutch his forearm. He looked up and he seemed so scared it took Seto aback. Yuugi's wide lavender eyes shifted back to the fallen artifact on the floor.

"... Two weeks before Grandpa died, I found that _thing_ ," the shorter man waved weakly to the aforementioned pendant, "It was a puzzle of some kind. My grandfather kept a ton of things like that around in our storage; from before his retirement. I remember he said it came from Egypt and was thousands of years old. It was given to him by a colleague of his, but he was planning on getting rid of it for some reason." Seto frowned as he looked down at Yuugi, unsure where the exposition was headed, but he had a feeling he needed to listen.

"I thought it would be fun to put the puzzle together, because it seemed challenging and I love complex games. It took about two weeks for me to finish it and the night before Grandpa passed away, I completed it. After I put the last piece in, I can't recall anything. I woke up in my bed the next morning. I figured I must have fallen asleep and I headed out to see if my grandfather was awake." Yuugi finally choked and stammered in his explanation, the pain of his recent loss vivid in his expression.

"I don't understand. He was healthy up until that same night. Even our family doctor said he was in great shape for his age. He died in his sleep from a massive heart attack." The shorter man bit his lip and held his hand to his eyes, shielding them from Seto's view. The latter stood awkwardly, uncertain of what to say or do to comfort Yuugi. With all of his time spent studying human emotions and his desire to become a doctor of psychology, Seto was terrible at offering comfort. He struggled to open up on an interpersonal level and let people in far enough to see that he understood their pain, for he was human too. He had walled off his own emotions for over eight years, for fear of being hurt again, and now in a time where he actually wanted to comfort the other man before him, he couldn't. He had lost people he'd loved too; a tragic, violent loss.

"Mutou..." Yuugi looked at Seto and lessened his hold on the taller student's arm before steeping back.

"After his death, the nightmares started. They were filled with these horrible images of death and gore and these red eyes that haunted me." The image of a red gaze made Seto recall the scene with Yuugi in the latter's kitchen a few weeks before. The thought made his stomach turn.

"The dreams have gotten worse in the last week. I can't sleep." Yuugi glanced apprehensively at the pendant and whispered, "I don't know if that _thing_ had anything to do with my grandfather's death, or even my nightmares, but I found it again on the day I finally decided to pack his stuff. I hadn't been able to do any sorting or packing until almost a month and half after his death... It was too hard." Yuugi bit his lip, his face taunt with sorrow. "I found it in a random box. I'm not even sure how it got there. It glowed with a bright light when I touched it before I felt the worst sense of panic I've ever experienced. It chilled me to the core, even worse than when I found Grandpa the morning of his death." The shorter man hugged his arms and looked into Seto's alert blue eyes, hesitant to continue. It was the story he had not wanted to share the night Seto and he met, the former thought, before Yuugi pushed on quietly.

"I must have passed out, because when I came to, I was on the floor and something was _choking_ me. No one else was in the room."

* * *

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I'm imagining Kaiba and Yuugi as they looked at the end of DSOD, just for reference. Enjoy the chapter.

AN1: Yami the bunny. That is all. You are welcomed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Rating:** M

 **Chapter Warnings:** Mentions of death, violence and some gore, mild sexual content and homosexuality, general creepiness and supernatural themes

* * *

Yuugi's expression showed his fright as he recalled the memory, but Seto narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

"Choking you? How is that possible? Did you just forget to swallow your spit or something?" He deadpanned and Yuugi flinched in reply. Though he found the other's claim unbelievable, Seto felt a small pang of guilt in his chest at the shorter boy's seemingly genuine reaction. He wanted to believe him, but how? He watched as his subject suddenly reached up to the choker he always sported around his neck. Yuugi unbuckled it, the wide leather strip falling into his hand, and Seto looked on in mild shock. How had he not noticed the marks, _the huge bruises_ , which were just barely concealed by Yuugi's choker necklace, before then? The bruises were relatively recent, as they were dark and almost grotesque in their mix of purple and yellow. They looked scarily like handprints, only slightly bigger then Yuugi's. _He couldn't have done that to himself, right?_ Seto questioned in his own head, flabbergasted. He had heard and seen people do desperate things in a quest for pity or attention, or again in the midst of mental illness, but this scene didn't seem right. It was unsettling to see Yuugi, who Seto thought of as an overall mentally sound, mild-mannered person, marked with the hands of someone or _something_ aiming to violently snuff out his life. Seto felt a chill slitter its way down his spine like a snake stalking its prey with cold calculation. He cautiously eyed Yuugi's battered neck, at a loss for words. The paranormal investigator had searched for evidence, to prove or even disprove the younger man's claims of paranormal activity in his home, but this hadn't been the evidence he'd wanted. If any of it was true, Seto realized he could be dealing with something truly dangerous.

The taller boy looked down when his smaller host gripped his forearm again, Yuugi's breathing rapid.

"I took it into the forest about a mile away the next day. I buried it there. How is it here, Kaiba?" Wearily, Seto stared at the object of discussion lying innocently on the floor and he didn't know what to say. He couldn't deny the icy dampness in the heavy air of the room, or the way the pendant caused a chill to settle over him like a wet blanket when he touched it. If Yuugi had truly ridden himself of the artifact, why was it here?

He turned back to Yuugi and realized by the paleness of his face and the ragged quality of his breathing that the other student was hyperventilating. Taking hold of his shoulders, Seto shook the shorter man gently, speaking in a firm tone,

"Mutou, you have to calm down and breathe. You're panicking." Yuugi glanced up and the look in his eyes would stay with the psychology graduate long after their case was over. Yuugi was terrified and Seto was unable to help; it made him feel weak and useless. As the younger man's grip weakened and his violet eyes fluttered close, the taller boy caught him before he stumbled and fell. Holding him up with his arms around Yuugi's waist, Seto hurried out of the Elder Mutou's bedroom and into the guest room without thought. He kneeled down and carefully helped Yuugi onto the futon that served as Seto's bed, where the former groaned and stirred weakly. Watching him for a few moments, Seto lightly pushed the shorter man's blond fringe away from his sweaty forehead. He couldn't help but worry, even after seeing the other boy's breathing calm slowly.

The game design student opened his eyes a bit, his lavender orbs looking around in confusion, until they settled on the blue ones hovering only a foot away. Seto gulped and pulled his hand away, feeling guilty for being caught touching the other boy. Instead, he stood up and left the guestroom to avoid questions, instead padding over to Yuugi's bedroom. Once inside, he didn't look around the space, not wanting to pry, and instead found what he wanted. When he returned into the guest room, Yuugi was sitting cross-legged on the futon, his face still pale, but he gave a weak smile when he spotted Seto carrying Yami. The bunny was placed gently onto its owner's lap, where it received several long strokes over its back. Seto felt his lips twitch upwards at the sweet scene of Yuugi showering his pet with attention. The shorter student seemed to calm down and it left Seto with the question of what to do with the object of Yuugi's panic.

* * *

It was his duty to discard of the pendant as he was the paranormal expert, but the task nevertheless unnerved him. After pondering and deciding to lock the eerie object in an old disused shed behind the Mutou house, Seto sat in the living room while Yuugi rested in his own bedroom, where he had relocated after thanking his houseguest. The latter had reassured him and insisted he rest, mostly so he could avoid answering questions. Seto was then left alone with his thoughts as Yuugi slept. The psychology student stared out the living room window sullenly. The sky was dark and dimly lit by the cloud-covered moon. The rain had stopped for the first time all day but clouds still hung menacingly in the dark sky. It reflected Seto's mood well; his uncertainty. None of the current craziness made any sense in his mind; if Yuugi was telling the truth, the pendant may have been the cause of his attack. It could also be the cause of the paranormal activity in the house, but how? It was only an old, strangely shaped necklace; it seemed harmless. Seto tried to come up with an explanation for everything, as he always did, but he couldn't. He felt powerless and it frustrated him. He had never faced an investigation he couldn't easily explain. And besides the uncanny paranormal activity, Seto also dealt with his confusing feelings for Yuugi. Why had the taller student taken care of his smaller subject earlier? He wouldn't have just let Yuugi fall to the floor unconscious; he wasn't that cold of a person, but he also knew he didn't have try and comfort the other man by bringing him his pet. He shouldn't have put Yuugi in the guestroom either, amongst Seto's personal stuff. It had felt strangely intimate, despite not being in his own home. He hadn't thought; he had just wanted to get the shorter man somewhere reassuring, away from the eerie artifact resting only several feet away. And when Seto had gently brushed Yuugi's sweaty fringe from his face...

"None of that was necessary," Seto said to the empty living room and rubbed his face tiredly. The last thing he needed was to become attached to the game design student. He shouldn't care, but Seto feared he was starting to. Tomorrow morning, he thought as he headed back to the guest bedroom a while later, he would leave. He would no longer care what happened in the little home on the limits of Domino City, owned by a boy who managed to pull emotions from him that Seto didn't want uncovered. Whatever hold Yuugi Mutou had on him...whatever infatuation he held for the other student had to end, before Seto found himself hurt. He couldn't risk his heart; he wouldn't survive it again.

The young man sighed and removed his jacket before flopping face first onto the futon beneath him, his mind weary and already begging him to rest. It surprised him how quickly he fell asleep, with his thoughts in a constant circuit. It startled Seto even more to wake up to a dark night sky outside his bedroom window, much like he had left it before sleep; he hadn't slept long. He sat up as he heard a distant noise. Confused and eyes still clouded from sleep, Seto rubbed his face as he heard the noise again. It was Yuugi and he was yelling.

Startled, Seto jumped up from his makeshift bed and hurried out of the guestroom. He rushed into Yuugi's room and found the other man curled up on the floor beside his bed, groaning and clutching his shoulder. Flipping on the bedside lamp, Seto kneeled beside Yuugi and gasped at the sight of blood staining the shorter boy's shirt sleeve. He manoeuvred him carefully into a seated position and looked over the area under the blood. There were three long visible gashes running over and across Yuugi's left shoulder. His sleep shirt was torn and ruined by blood. It was a grizzly scene. Still dazed, Seto stood and hurried to the bathroom, quickly digging around for a first aid kit. His hunch was right, as he found the kit under the sink and ran back into the bedroom. Seto's hands were unsteady as he kneeled beside his host and looked at Yuugi with wide blue eyes.

"What the hell happened Mutou?! Did you do this to yourself?" He felt a familiar pinch in his chest as he asked the question, but the scene before him was hard to comprehend. Yuugi, his hands covered in blood, shook his head fiercely and he looked at Seto in disbelief. His own lavender eyes were blurred with tears of pain and confusion.

"No! I woke up when I fell to the floor and I could feel something just..." The young man gazed down at his hands and finally noticed the bright red blood. It was a morbidly hypnotising sight. Yuugi gagged and closed his eyes tightly, prompting Seto to help him up quickly and to the nearby bathroom.

Once inside, Yuugi went to wash his hands in the sink, his reflection pale and sickly in the mirror over the vanity. He was trembling and looked like he had been violently woken up. Quietly standing by the door, Seto observed him for a moment before stepping up to the toilet with the first aid kit.

"Sit. I'll clean your wounds and see how bad they are. We might need to go to the hospital." Yuugi didn't reply but merely nodded as he moved to the toilet while slowly removing his tattered shirt with difficulty. He groaned in discomfort and Seto had to stop himself from staring at the other man's chest for the sake of the latter's modesty. Diverting his eyes to the side, the taller of the two boys kneeled and glanced over the wounds on Yuugi's shoulder. Wadding up some gauze, Seto cleaned an area and noted the neat lines were shallow, but lengthy. Subconsciously his lips fell into a brooding frown as he carefully wiped the area with some rubbing alcohol. Beneath the other's careful hands, Yuugi shivered and bit back a hiss of moderate unease. He glanced back at Seto, his eyes bright and uncertain. The taller boy stared back with a frown. Grabbing the bandages once the wounds were properly cleaned, Seto began wrapping the gauze around the injured shoulder before him. His hands manoeuvred with care as to not touch the other man inappropriately. His gaze lifted to meet Yuugi's again, icy blue to warm lavender. The moment felt strangely intimate and the air between them was tense with something Seto couldn't place, _wouldn't_ place. The feeling sat heavy and low in his stomach. It had been a long time since he cared for or had even been that close to anyone and it made him uneasy, but the sensation was strangely not unwanted.

Seto caught himself glaring when Yuugi glanced away, his pale cheeks lightly flushed. Sighing, the taller boy stood, looking away, and said quietly,

"I think you should be fine. The wounds seem shallow enough. Do you think you need pain medicine?"

\- "No, I'm okay. Seto... Thank you. You didn't have to do this." Yuugi answered gently, his arms crossing over his chest protectively. "I don't know what happened in there, I was just-" The shorter man was caught off by his houseguest leaving the bathroom abruptly. Wanting to put distance between them, Seto stepped past Yuugi's bedroom before heading back to his own. He didn't like the way his given name slid off the other man's tongue so smoothly, as it added to the unnerving feeling in his stomach. He ignored the sight of blood on the bamboo mats covering the floor visible from the hallway and made for his room when he caught something gleaming in the low light of the bedside lamp in Yuugi's room. Seto turned his head absently and looked at the bed, his eyes taking a moment to focus when his heart nearly stopped his chest. There, amongst the blankets and the blood, sat the previously locked away pyramid pendant.

Moments later, Yuugi came back into his room, arms crossed over his bare chest, and stood behind Seto. Both stared in horror at the innocent looking object on the bed. Yuugi gripped Seto's arm as the other stood stunned, the key to the old shed weighing like lead in his pants pocket. The pair stood still, a mix of fright and stupor on their stunned faces. After a moment of silence, Seto snapped from his daze and moved into action. He turned to Yuugi, his eyes urgent.

"We're leaving, right now. Grab some clothes and your school stuff." Seto calmly stated and the shorter man needed no further urging as he hurried into action and grabbed his backpack. Rushing back down the hallway, Seto moved to gather the camera and audio recorder which were still capturing data. He would check the gathered clips later, when they were safe at his place. In that moment as he gathered his personal items from the guest bedroom, Seto recognized the small shiver of fear running down his spine caused by the sight of Yuugi's artifact mysteriously reappearing in the younger's room. The paranormal investigator knew with absolute positivity that he had barred the object in the abandoned shed out back and had locked the padlock on the door securely before returning to the house. There was no possible way the artifact had moved when he and Yuugi had both been in the bathroom. Seto also knew for certain that the thing hadn't been on Yuugi's bed when he had first entered the room. His thoughts made the tall man's heart sink and he hurriedly finished packing.

As Seto zipped his bag closed with a sense of finality, Yuugi stepped into the frame of the bedroom door, now dressed in dark jeans, a black checkered button-down shirt and his backpack carefully swung over his uninjured shoulder. Frowning, he nodded towards his room before saying,

"What about Yami? I can't leave her here. She's freaked out right now."

Damn, the rabbit. Seto had forgotten about the furry creature entirely. Cursing under his breath, he tried to find a solution. They couldn't bring it with them; the noise from Seto's motorcycle would likely give it a heart attack. The taller student scowled and asked

"Can't you ask someone to babysit? We can't bring her on my bike."

Yuugi pouted and closed his eyes, lost in his thoughts for a moment, before pulling out his Smartphone and pressing speed dial. After speaking quietly with someone on the other line for a moment, Yuugi hung up and looked at Seto.

"My friend Jounouchi will come and get her."

He moved aside as Seto headed downstairs first. Yuugi followed a minute later with his pet in its cage and an extra bag under his arm. His shoulder was clearly tender, as the shorter man flinched several times on his way to the front door. Seto bit the inside of his cheek as he watched, but did nothing. The pair made their way outside and away from the eerie home. They went to Seto's motorcycle, where the older boy secured their bags. A few moments later, a plain black car pulled up on the curb of the quiet residential street before the Mutou residence and a kid with a wild mane of blonde hair hurried out. He shuffled over to Yuugi, alarm in his voice as he asked his friend what was wrong. The game design student shot a look to the psychology graduate, warning him without words not to mention what happened back in the home. Seto agreed as he said nothing and watched Yuugi give a lame excuse for his late night call before thanking Jounouchi for taking his pet on such short notice. The blonde waved the favour off, though he was clearly concerned for his short friend. Seto only glared at the other man, named Jounouchi apparently, instantly disliking him. Half of the reason for his aversion was the blonde's aloof appearance; the other half was the man's apparent need to be very close to Yuugi. Jounouchi hugged and touched the shorter boy and the friendly gestures rubbed Seto the wrong way. He would never admit to being envious of Jounouchi's closeness with Yuugi, but it made him angry. Jounouchi seemed to pick up on Seto's dislike of him, as the blond glared back at the former. Yuugi made the wise decision to not introduce the two boys to each other.

Once the rabbit was safely on its way to its temporary home, Seto grabbed his helmet and handed Yuugi his spare one before climbing onto his motorcycle. The engine roared to life beneath the pair. As they head back into Domino City, Seto rethought his decision to bring Yuugi to his home as the latter hugged his midsection from behind while he drove. The gesture made him more uncomfortable then he was before; but sensing the way the smaller man held onto him tightly, Seto knew deep down that he had made the right decision by taking Yuugi to his apartment in the city. No matter the nervousness the other made him feel, the psychology graduate could have never left the other student alone in that house, with that supernatural gold artifact. He remembered the fresh wounds on the younger man's shoulder and the smell of blood that still clung to his own clothes. Seto felt an emotion he hadn't encountered in his heart in the many years since his mother's death; protectiveness. He wanted to protect Yuugi from whatever unseen and unexplained force was clearly out to hurt him and the feeling petrified Seto. With these emotions stirring inside him, he was concerned that he wouldn't be able to protect his own heart from pain. He was becoming exposed and vulnerable to Yuugi and Seto hated it.

They arrived in silence at Seto's modest apartment in Domino University's district. Seto parked the motorcycle and the two boys made their way from the parking lot to the apartment building. The air between them was filled with tense silence and Seto's nerves felt raw, making him twitchy and irritable. He hung between regret and comfort in his snapped choice to bring Yuugi home; of all the times he felt confident in his decisions, that moment made Seto Kaiba hesitant and a bit lost. He was never hesitant.

He was home, the blue-eyed man thought as he stepped into his apartment. Looking around at the familiar surroundings, Seto let himself relax for the first time in hours. His shoulders fell from their uptight state and he left his bag near his desk by the living room window as he pulled off his coat. The older man found himself almost forgetting his unexpected houseguest in his momentary reverie. He turned to watch Yuugi as the latter removed his shoes and stood by the doorway, looking around curiously at Seto's apartment. It dawned on the latter that Yuugi fit in the space quite well and didn't seem bothered by the rather sterile and bland decor of the modest home. The shorter man gazed up at Seto and let out a small, but tired smile and said,

"Thank you Seto for bringing me here. At least I feel safer away from my house and with..." Yuugi's face contorted into a slight cringe and he caught himself before he finished his sentence, his ears turning a light shade of red. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Seto nodded subtly in reply and mumbled to his guest to make himself comfortable before he went to his bedroom. Once the door close behind him, he set out to change his clothes quickly, the scent of Yuugi's blood still clinging to them. Seto dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt before stuffing his ruined clothes in a plastic bag and shoving them in the trash can by the door. They were not salvageable.

Afterwards, Seto headed out of his bedroom and over to the small, but modern kitchen off to the right of the living space. Pinching the bridge of his nose, the paranormal investigator opened his refrigerator in search of something for his dry mouth. His eyes briefly shifted over the contents of the appliance before settling on an unopened bottle of wine in the very back of the top shelf. It had been a gift from the Masters' program of the psychology department after his acceptance last year. He had all but forgotten about it, not having much of a taste for alcohol in general. Though after the uncanny day he had, Seto figured he could allow himself a drink to help lessen his worries, even just momentarily. When he returned from the kitchen with a regular glass half filled with red wine, he found Yuugi staring at himself in the window above Seto's desk. The younger man was observing the area under his choker with a frown, where the bruises were still vivid. His digits then found their way to the visible bit of bandage binding his shoulder injury beneath his shirt. Yuugi sighed and even from his position several feet away, Seto could see the melancholy and unease in his guest's striking eyes. His hand tightened around the cold glass in his hand and he spoke before he could catch himself,

"Do you want some wine? It's been a shitty night." Seto tried to sound casual, but he shifted uneasily nevertheless. It was none of his business what Yuugi did, but as he glanced at that battered neck, he couldn't help himself. He wanted to distract the other man from his thoughts. Surprised by the older man's voice, Yuugi spun to look at Seto, his face uncertain. He nodded after a moment and Seto returned to the kitchen, coming back to the living room with a second glass of wine in his hands. The two young men sat on the cosy leather couch, each sipping their drinks in silence. The quietness between them lent to the awkward tension in the room, but as Seto watched Yuugi sip from his glass and make a slight face of disgust, he couldn't help but chuckle. The deep, humored sound caused Yuugi to give a small pout in reply.

"It's been a while since I had alcohol. I think the one and only time was on my birthday and it was only because Jounouchi insisted." The shorter boy sighed and tried his drink again, his lips twitching but giving no other reaction. Seto chuckled again and sipped from his glass, trying to hide the slight grimace at the mellow, but sweet alcoholic taste of the wine. He wasn't used to alcohol either, but he wouldn't admit that outright. Instead he teased his guest,

"Well, you don't have to drink it. I'm not forcing you."

\- "Yeah," Yuugi started in reply, tucking his legs under himself as he curled up on the couch only a foot away from Seto, "but it's helping me relax. It's been... stressful."

Seto disliked the sigh and frown Yuugi gave as the latter quietly consumed his drink. Finishing his own glass, Seto placed the object on the dark wood coffee table and sat back on the couch, giving his own sigh. He closed his eyes to rest for a moment, enjoying the blissful silence between him and his houseguest; he wasn't in the mood to talk about the events of the night. It was already past 1:00 and he was drained. Seto didn't realize he had been idly toying with the locket around his neck until Yuugi asked quietly,

"Whose picture do you have in there? They must be important for you to carry their picture with you." Yuugi was smiling gently, his own glass of wine also empty and resting on the coffee table. His question seemed genuine and held no mockery in the face of Seto's sentimentality; it left the older man struggling with the decision to answer. He knew he didn't need to respond to Yuugi's question, that the other boy would let the topic drop if Seto wanted but he still found himself answering as his eyes gazed absently at the wall opposite them.

"My mother and younger brother." The answer was short and simple, but Seto felt the words had exerted him in their articulation like they carried an immense weight to them. It was a burden that sat on Seto's heart every day, ever-present and dismaying. It was odd to share even an ounce of that weight openly. It had been his personal dark secret for so long. Biting the inside of his cheek, Seto glanced over at Yuugi, as the latter looked pensive before he caught Seto's gaze with his own. Yuugi bit his lower lip, holding back a cheerless smile as he pulled a familiar silver chain from under the collar of his shirt. The two rings set upon it glinted in the dim light of a close-by lamp.

"These belonged to my parents. They passed away in a car accident when I was six years old." There were tears in those violet eyes he had come to admire and it broke Seto's heart. Yuugi wasn't the type of person who should ever be sad, as it only dimmed the bright light the shorter man seemed to radiate. He always seemed happy and caring, regardless of the situation. Seto thought of their own interactions together; he consistently pushed the younger boy away, only for the latter to unceasingly offer up his friendship without grudge. And now, Seto found himself almost wanting to reach out and grab the benevolent hand that had been offered to him.

"They're dead." The words were bitter tasting in his mouth and made him want to gag. Seto clutched his locket tighter and looked away from Yuugi. His anger shouldn't be directed at the other man, but the topic made it difficult. The taller boy tried to grasp what he had just admitted, an awful truth he had held in his heart for years. For several long moments, Seto sat with shoulders tensed and palms in a cold sweat before a gentle touch to his knee appeared. Surprised, he looked down to see Yuugi giving the saddest smile he had seen on the boy yet. It wasn't full of pity, just genuine grief. In an unexpectedly bold move, Yuugi took Seto's hand in his own and cradled it gently in his warm lap. The taller man's palm tingled where it rested against his houseguest's and he looked on wide-eyed at the affectionate gesture, unsure what to do. It was weird just how well their hands fit together, how Yuugi's hands warmed Seto's own icy digits. The blue eyed man was surprised how much the contact was neither repulsive nor unwanted, but his resolve was also too weak to let go of the shorter man's hand. Yuugi squeezed his fingers reassuringly, the gesture tender, and he moved his face to look more directly at Seto, whose usual confidence had wavered and caused him to turn his gaze away.

"Sometimes, loneliness is so suffocating that you fear you might drown in the pain," The description sounded too accurate for it to not be part of Yuugi's personal experience.

"It makes everything so hard to do, even the stupid day-to-day tasks that we take for granted. Since my Grandpa's death, I haven't been able to not cry at night. I feel so lonely, like no one would ever understand my pain or be there to help me. It's ridiculous, because so many people lose their loved ones every day and I know I'm better off after the fact then most people would be. I still have my friends and I have a comfortable home left to me by my grandfather..." Yuugi bit his lip again as tears filled his eyes, making their violet tint brighter, but he continued determinately,

"I was adopted by him after my parents died in a car crash when I was six years old. Now at twenty, I can barely remember their faces. Grandpa had been my only real parent for years, but I still miss them so much every single day." The shorter boy closed his eyes tightly, the soft grimace on his face only hinting at the extent of his internal pain, but he kept baring his soul to the other boy before him,

"You don't have to be alone, Seto. I can see that you're hurting and I have since we met. I understand that pain, if only a little. I'm here for you. I know we don't know each other well, but I feel like we..." Yuugi trailed off as he opened his bright eyes and stared at Seto, a faint redness darkening his cheeks.

Stunned at the openness and the helping hand once again extended to him, Seto could only stare back at Yuugi in silence. He didn't want to feel weak, because weakness would only allow the pain to burn more intensely, but he could feel it sitting heavily on his heart. The offer made him weary, as he had been alone for so long that his hurt and solitude had become his constant companions. Seto Kaiba didn't need to rely on anyone for any single thing and he liked it that way, but did he really? Would Seto be able to decipher his feelings towards Yuugi if he let the other in? What if the other student betrayed his trust or worse, his heart? Could Seto ever go on to have faith in another person again?

When Yuugi smiled a bit and whispered reassurance, Seto sighed and felt his body finally give under the fear, the suffering and the despair it had carried for far too long. He stared at those violet eyes that seemed to be able to break through every barrier he had meticulously put up over the years since his brother's murder. Seto felt like an open book to Yuugi. He only wondered, as he watched the other's gentle face closely, if he read the shorter man correctly. The way Yuugi blushed under Seto's stare, the manner with which he held his hand... Before he could stop the motion, Seto felt himself lean forward. He didn't know why his mind had pushed him to do so, but his lips found Yuugi's in a hesitant kiss.

His heart pounded rapidly in his chest, its beat a thunderous noise in his ears, and Seto wanted to scream at himself for his action. Why was he kissing Yuugi? Why was his hand reaching out to pull the other man closer to him when he should be pushing him away? He didn't want to be attracted to Yuugi, but his body acted on its own. Even as their kiss began awkward and disjointed, both boys lacking experience, their lips fit together like pieces of a puzzle when they finally settled into a proper position. It was gentle and cautious, and Seto couldn't help revelling in the heat that spread in his chest to chase away the darkness. He found himself holding Yuugi in his arms, the shorter man not pushing him away. He met him with the same tentative keenness in their kiss as he wrapped his arms around his neck and laced his fingers in the hairs of Seto's nape. The gesture caused a shiver to run down the taller man's back. The lips under his were a bit chapped, but incredibly warm and welcoming.

The connection felt right, Seto thought as he pushed Yuugi back on the couch gently and moved over him to nuzzle the latter's bruised neck under his choker. His nose buried itself against the unexpectedly soft skin there, his lips moving to place cautious pecks in their path. Seto had no idea what he was doing; he let instinct and want drive him. Under him, Yuugi seemed more then receptive to Seto as he shuddered and closed his eyes, his hands moving through the older boy's brown hair. The unexpected turn of events was overwhelming, but Seto couldn't pull away from his craving for the man beneath him. He had never wanted to be so close to anyone. He knew he shouldn't be given into his attraction for Yuugi, especially when both of them had any sort of alcohol in their system and would likely regret their actions in the morning. As much as he was confused by his feelings, Seto didn't want to hurt or take advantage of the shorter student. Perhaps it was their common sense of loneliness that had pushed them together and created a need for one another. Perhaps it was Yuugi's need for answers to the unexplainable threat in his home and Seto's want to protect him from harm. Seto didn't understand his feelings and was scared of them. That fear was a whole new experience for him and he didn't know what to do. He reviled not being in control of himself.

When his lips pressed over the most vivid of the bruises on the neck before him, Yuugi gave a small gasp and Seto felt the sound resonate in his head. The younger man hesitantly slid his hands under the fabric of the older one's shirt and stroked the skin of his waist. Seto groaned quietly and pressed closer, creating a delicious friction between their bodies. Yuugi pulled back a bit and stared up at him, his violet eyes bright with yearning and his lips whispering Seto's name gently. The beckoning made the latter look up, his blue eyes dark with a mix of sparking desire and uncertainty. Smiling tenderly, the shorter boy cupped the taller one's cheek and brought their lips together for another kiss. It was sloppy at first, like their last one, and they tilted their heads to find a more comfortable angle. It wasn't the most romantic gesture, but the whole experience felt intense and intimate to Seto. He reached down to undo Yuugi's flannel shirt, his hands gliding cautiously under the soft fabric and over the heated skin beneath. He then began to stroke a line down the center of Yuugi's stomach and he was surprised to find that while the game design student may be shorter and smaller than most men their age, he had some hidden muscle. In turn, Yuugi shivered and let out a soft sound akin to a moan, pressing himself to Seto. He wrapped both of his legs tightly around his companion's waist before lightly rolling his hips up in an unpracticed but teasing movement. Seto bit back another groan at the new sensation. As he grasped Yuugi's thighs to pull his body impossibly closer to him and their lips pressed together in a messy passionate kiss, he felt besieged by the intoxicating need the shorter man created in him. It was both exhilarating and terrifying.

* * *

The start of our pair's romance. Enjoy the chapter. Reviews are always appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

**Rating:** M

 **Chapter Warnings:** Graphic depictions of violence and child abuse, mild sexual content and homosexuality, general creepiness and supernatural themes

* * *

The intense moment ended when Yuugi suddenly pulled Seto into a hug and held him, the latter not fighting to move away from the warm embrace. The shorter man didn't seem to want to go further, so Seto moved off of his would-be lover as not to crush him; he was much taller than Yuugi after all. Both of them were panting gently and red-faced. Seto couldn't help but stare at Yuugi, almost memorised by the other man as the latter nuzzled against his shoulder. Yuugi fell asleep a while later with his head on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around his waist. Seto was left alone and waited for several minutes in perfect stillness, the only sounds being his heartbeat and Yuugi's calm breathing. He attempted move away from his companion and quietly got up to fetch a spare pillow and blanket. After gently tucking his houseguest in, the psychology graduate stared at him for a moment longer before sighing and heading to his bedroom, flicking the lights off as he left the living space.

In his dark room, Seto sat on his bed and stared angrily at the wall across from him. He left Yuugi on the sofa so the younger wouldn't feel awkward or confused by waking up in Seto's bed the following morning. He also needed distance from him. For Seto, his emotions and thoughts were a jumbled mess in his head. He couldn't pinpoint what had led him to kiss Yuugi, or why the younger man hadn't pushed him away. The taller boy had wondered if his case subject had any feelings for him and it seemed he got his answer. Again and again in his mind, he went over the reasons to be against his own emotions as he had done earlier and Seto soon realized they were only excuses. He felt something for Yuugi and it was a dangerous emotion. It left Seto feeling vulnerable and trapped and he felt he had to find a solution. The best thing would be to send Yuugi home in the morning then head to the university to hand his case back to Professor Ishtar, who would be more helpful with the investigation then he. He could distance himself from the whole situation. Though, Seto knew, the idea was cowardly. When had he become a coward, with every adversity he had faced in his life? He actually cared for another person and his new feelings made him into a fearful weakling; he didn't want to face reality. He was angry at himself for letting everything happen, for initiating the kiss in the first place. He was angry at Yuugi for not pushing him away, for being so damn open and reassuring.

Seto flopped down on his bed and relaxed into the comforter, his eyes staring tiredly at the ceiling. He was alone and his mind drifted back to the incident at the Mutou residence. The look of fright and sleepy surprise in Yuugi's lavender eyes confirmed to Seto what the shorter man had claimed; he had been attacked in his sleep. The psychology student then found the pyramid shaped artifact in the house when he had locked it away. Seto couldn't explain what had attacked Yuugi and he almost felt overwhelmed with how fast the situation was devolving.

Reaching down to gasp the locket on his chest, Seto opened it to stare at the images of his brother Mokuba and their mother. When he thought back to the moment he revealed his secret to Yuugi, he felt conflicted. It was a relief to share part of his burden with another person and he knew that Yuugi didn't mock or pity him. The other boy was an open book; it would have been hard for him to hide his real reaction. The way Yuugi nearly shed tears for him, but didn't apologize for his misfortunes comforted Seto. It made him want to give his trust to the strange young man whose life had become oddly intertwined with his, but Seto knew he couldn't. He was too afraid. Seto couldn't even help him resolve the paranormal _whatever_ happening in his home. The case seemed beyond Seto's comprehension and he hated to admit it. He felt truly helpless in more ways than one.

* * *

Seto fell asleep a short while later, his body finally giving in to his fatigue. It was past 2:00. Unfortunately for him, he awoke a few hours later in a cold sweat. An all-too-familiar nightmare kept its imaginary grip on him as he shivered and stared into the empty bedroom around him, which was dimly lit by the early morning light. It was 5:30. Seto rubbed his face tiredly and stayed in his bed, hoping for more sleep, before finally giving up and standing. After a quick shower and a change of clothing, he padded out to the living room where Yuugi still slept. The younger man was curled up under his borrowed blanket on the sofa, his face peaceful as it was half buried in the pillow under it. The taller boy stood nearby, his mind drifting to images from several hours before. He couldn't shake the memories of the pleasured sounds Yuugi had made as he touched him, or the way he stared at Seto with the same burning desire. Seto bit the inside of his cheek and turned towards the apartment's front door, the need to escape from Yuugi and his feelings overpowering. It pushed him forward as he grabbed his bag and hurried out the door, locking it quietly behind him. He felt like a coward again, but Seto didn't care. He _was_ a coward.

* * *

Seto spent most of the day at a beach an hour away from Domino City. The area was quiet this time of the year, as Monsoon season reared its ugly head and brought down continuous rainfall. The beach remained lovely all the same and Seto gazed at it from his spot in a nearby restaurant. He sat at a small table by a window, staring outside at the downpour while absently picking at the sandwich he had ordered. His laptop was open before him, a sent email directed at Professor Isis Ishtar on the screen. He had asked to be dismissed from Yuugi's case. His teacher was usually quick with her replies, but Seto had sent the email that morning and had yet to receive a reply. It was 17:00 and the overcast sky was growing darker by the minute. Seto finally left the restaurant at 17:30, leaving behind a generous tip for the owner, who had politely endured the young man in their establishment all day. The psychology student stood by his motorcycle, wavering between heading back to his apartment and leaving for another location. After a full day of thinking, his feelings were no more decipherable to him then they had been in the morning. He realized he was only avoiding Yuugi, who had likely remained at Seto's apartment. The taller boy hadn't left behind a spare key and his case subject wouldn't have left the front door unlocked and vulnerable to intruders. Seto sighed and started his bike's engine, deciding to head home and face the small man who terrified him.

* * *

Seto spent exactly ten minutes standing before his apartment door, the keys in his clenched hand, according to the digital clock on his Smartphone. He hesitated and hesitated more, before he could finally muster up the courage to slide the key in the lock, the clicking sound it made deafening to his ears. Seto stepped inside and immediately spotted Yuugi, sitting on the couch with a textbook in his lap. The shorter man looked up, surprised, and the taller boy noted his fatigued appearance. Yuugi had clearly changed clothing from the night before and freshened up, but the changes did little to conceal his tiredness and worry. He jumped up from the sofa and hurried over to Seto, his weary face breaking into a relieved smile.

"Seto," the game design student said happily, "I was getting worried about you. But I knew you would come back." He reached out to take his hand, which the taller man snatched away before he could touch it. Seto looked angrily at Yuugi, his fiery glare causing the younger man to flinch and drop his hand. Moving past his houseguest, Seto went into the living room, his back to Yuugi as he spoke coolly,

"I need you to leave. I've already handed your case back to Professor Ishtar. I don't want to help you anymore."

The words caused a pang in his chest, but Seto ignored it as he heard Yuugi shuffle over to him, turning the taller boy to face him.

"What do you mean? Did I do something wrong?" Of course sweet, kind-hearted Yuugi Mutou would automatically assume that he was the one at fault in the situation. As much as Seto wanted to blame him, he couldn't. He knew all of this was his fault; he let the other man in too close to his heart.

"Yes." The syllable slipped from Seto's mouth and he instantly wanted to take it back, but the damage was done. Yuugi, his purple eyes wide, looked down at the hardwood floor beneath their feet with a heart-stricken look. Seto only wanted to hug the other boy and take the look off his face, take away his hurt, but he held himself back.

"I never wanted to be your friend, Mutou, or anything else for that matter." The older student wanted to kick himself for his words, "I don't need friends."

-"I'm sorry about last night. I thought that..." Yuugi started quietly, his gaze shifting up to catch Seto's before looking away again. "But Seto, don't push me away. I want to be your friend, even if you don't want that or anything else."

-"I don't want to be friends, Mutou." Seto spit back in annoyance.

-"But why?" Yuugi asked, weak but insistent.

Seto's emotions swelled in his chest, which wanted to rip open from the pain and anger boiling inside. He could feel his memories pushing to the surface of his mind, making him vomit his fears before he could stop himself.

"I don't want people close to me because I can't stand to lose anyone else." Yuugi's blinked at the older man's words, his violet eyes darkening with unshed tears. He looked up at Seto, whose own blue eyes burnt with the suppressed hurt and fear he felt. Reaching up, Yuugi cupped Seto's cheek gently, his touch soft as he stroked the skin there. Everything in the taller boy's being told him to pull away, to scream at the other, but he couldn't. He felt that familiar weakness etch its way into his mind and he simply stood there, his will to fight diminishing. Yuugi took the opportunity to speak, his smile sad,

"Something, terrible things happen to people and they feel like they can never get over it. I know when my parents died, I thought my world had ended. I couldn't see any beauty left in life; nothing felt worth living for. The world was dark and bleak and I felt like that for ten years. But one day in high school, during an English class, the teacher quoted a line from a book we were reading." Yuugi gave a small, awkward laugh. "I didn't like the story because it was so sad, but that line stayed with me. The writer said 'I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains'. Even with the constant threat of death looming over her, she could still see the beauty of the world. I think that quote changed my life."

Seto listened closely. A lump formed in his throat and made his breathing come out more ragged. He stared at Yuugi, the remaining barriers around his heart crumbling under that _affectionate_ violet gaze. How could he say no to a face that earnest? Tears filled his eyes for the first time in eight years and Seto let go of his tight hold on his pain. It came flooding in like a tidal wave, powerful and fear-inspiring.

"He murdered him. That sick, twisted son-of-a-bitch killed Mokuba, and I couldn't do anything to help him." The words were sharp and acidic as they spilled from his tongue and Seto clenched his free fist, the other now cradled securely between Yuugi's warm hands. The memories of that faithful day eight years ago flashed vividly in his mind and the trauma returned to its full strength.

"He took him that day, when Mother had to bring Mobuka, who was at home sick, with her to do some errands. I was at school at the time. Some sick bastard took my little brother when my mother had turned her back for only a moment. Eight years ago, security cameras in stores weren't what they are now, so police had little to go on. I remembered watching Mother pray for Mokuba's safe return every day for two weeks while the police searched Domino City. They could have found him, if it hadn't been for _her_."

Yuugi's hands squeezed Seto's in a silent attempt at comfort. The spiky haired man remained quiet as his host glared at him, realizing that the death stare wasn't meant for him but the evil man from Seto's memories. Seto took a shaky breath as he continued.

"Mother went to a psychic in the hope to get some sort of answer or reassurance and the nut job told her that Mokuba was already dead. He was at peace and his death had been an accident. I think she told my mother that only to get her money and give her a false sense of closure. The psychic sensationalized our case for publicity afterwards." The look of realization and horror on Yuugi's face grew as Seto continued. "Two weeks later, the police found my brother's body dumped just off a trail by Domino Park. He had only been dead for two days, from what the coroner concluded. Mokuba had been sodomized and tortured for the whole four weeks he had been missing. The pedophile that killed him was caught the next day, ironically for violating his parole order to not approach elementary schools. My mother killed herself a month after Mokuba's funeral, out of guilt for giving up on her son when he was still alive and could have been found. I found her body in the bathroom the evening she died."

Seto's tone was as cold and empty as his heart felt after telling the story of his brother's murder. Even though the burden of carrying such a long-held secret with him had lifted from his shoulders, he could still feel the memories burning deep within his being. He felt numb and exhausted. He didn't feel much better after divulging his dark past to Yuugi; but then the shorter boy cupped his cheeks in the gentlest hold he could muster and looked at Seto with tears tracks on his face, his purple eyes wide and grieving, but without pity. Seto could see the genuine hurt for his painful story in the younger man's eyes.

"How do you ever see the world, or anything, as beautiful again after that?" The taller boy whispered, a tear rolling its way down his cheek and disappearing under Yuugi's fingers.

"How can you not see people for the monsters they are or could be? Why would you believe in such things as the paranormal when people can use that belief to hurt you?" His questions were rhetorical, but Yuugi took it upon himself to answer Seto's somber query as he leant up and placed a gentle kiss on his wet cheek.

"I care about you, Seto. I don't know what exactly my feelings are yet and I don't expect for you to understand yours either. I can see there's... something between us. All I ask is that you give me a chance. Just let me in a bit. I can show you life can be beautiful again." His soothing words and the sincerity in his gaze made Seto's hesitance finally give way. After a moment's pause, Seto nodded gently before bending his head to capture the shorter boy's lips in a tender kiss. He finally gave into his heart's desire; the desire to try and let Yuugi in. Seto didn't want to hurt anymore. He was so tired from the long-lasting burden of his loss and hatred. He wanted to let Yuugi in, as the other man brought so much light and hope to his soul. No longer did he want to suppress his feelings for him, even if they terrified Seto and left him completely exposed; the rewards could be so worth it. As Seto held Yuugi in his arms and kissed him deeply, the latter responding by wrapping his arms around his would-be lover, the taller boy had no regrets for once in his life.

* * *

The pair went to bed shortly afterwards. Seto tugged Yuugi along with him to his room, no other intentions but to hold the other boy for the night. As he had somewhat acknowledged his feelings for the shorter man, Seto didn't want to let him go, even if he wouldn't openly admit it. Yuugi followed happily, curling up beside Seto at they relaxed on the latter's large bed. They wiggled a bit to find the perfect position, neither familiar with curling up against another, then Seto held his would-be lover close and kissed him again, the gesture soft and sweet. The raging passion from the previous night remained, simmering just under the surface of his subconscious. They had all of the time in the world to figure out their relationship and Seto didn't want to rush things. Yuugi also seemed content with holding him. He traced the outline of the locket hidden under Seto's shirt, his fingers gentle.

"After your mom died, where did you go?" Yuugi rolled over onto his stomach to stare up at his companion, his lavender eyes eager to learn about the other man. Seto struggled with the decision to tell Yuugi, much like he had earlier. He knew he didn't have to explain, but part of letting people in was telling your whole story to them.

"After Mother died, I was sent to a state-sponsored orphanage." Seto explained quietly, Yuugi's hand finding his in the dark. He squeezed it for reassurance.

"Being fourteen years old and suddenly thrown into a situation like that was difficult. I had no other family living in Central Japan and my father left before Mokuba was born. We never heard from him after that. So I stayed at the orphanage, where I turned all of my attention to school. I knew I wasn't going to be adopted and I didn't care. I was already angry enough at the world. I left that place the day I graduated high school at seventeen. I was working part-time so I managed. Then I found out that my mother had a life insurance willed to me for my eighteenth birthday. It had originally been willed to both my brother and I, but Mother changed it several days before she killed herself."

The implication that Seto's mother knew she was going to kill herself before actually committing the act was heavy in the air between them. Yuugi frowned but said nothing, only taking his lover's hand and kissing its knuckles gently before snuggling close to his side. The affectionate gesture made Seto's cold heart melt a bit.

Hours passed in silence after the couple fell asleep. Seto was blissfully not plagued by his usual nightmares and he wondered in his sleepy subconscious if Yuugi's hold around his waist had anything to do with it. He stirred in the early morning hours to the feeling of something moving beside him. He no longer felt the surprising softness of Yuugi's spiked locks against his cheek and he could hear low mumbling, but the origins of the sounds remained muddled in his sleepy mind. Groaning in annoyance, Seto was not happy to be woken after only a few precious hours of sleep, as he had barely slept the night before. He turned onto his back to move away from the disturbance. When something carefully settled on top of him and he felt warm lips press against his own, he finally woke up. Seto opened his eyes to the darkness of the bedroom, blind to everything around him. The sky was still dark outside of the nearby window. He reached out to touch the thing, the person on top of him and realized it was Yuugi when his hand made contact with the leather choker around the other's neck. Confused and worried, Seto opened his mouth to ask the other man what he was doing when Yuugi leaned closer for another kiss. This kiss, unlike their previous ones, was fervent and insistent. Seto was puzzled by the sudden intensity and knew to push Yuugi away, but he hesitated because his desire for the contact. He was also perplexed by the shorter man's behaviour, as he didn't strike Seto as someone to be so bold in their sexual advances. Something about the situation didn't quite feel right.

Yuugi trailed his hands down Seto's chest as he nipped the elder's bottom lip, causing a suppressed sound in Seto's throat. The latter gasped when Yuugi rolled his hips against his own, creating a sweet friction and growing arousal in him. Seto didn't want to push things between them further faster, as he barely understood his full feelings, but Yuugi was making it difficult. Where he had seemed shy but receptive earlier, the other man was now more audacious and assertive. Seto groaned as Yuugi's hands found their way to his sensitive pelvic area and he moved to flip their bodies, soon hovering over the shorter boy. Seto turned to kiss Yuugi's neck again, the gesture producing a deep moan of his name from the latter. The older boy's brows knitted as he rolled his hips against Yuugi's in need, his resolve fading away bit by bit. He pulled back slightly as the boy under him slid his hands under his shirt and over the heated skin of his back. Shaking his head and biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from moaning, Seto looked down at Yuugi as best as he could in the darkness and whispered,

"Do you really want this? Aren't we going too fast? I don't even know what I'm doing. This could be a mistake, Mutou..." From below him, Yuugi gave a deep, cold chuckle, a sound that felt misplaced coming from him. It made Seto tilt his head in alarm. Wrapping his fingers around the broad shoulders before him, Yuugi opened his mouth to reply, his voice deep, flat and malicious,

" _Weak mortals always hesitate for the sake of sentimentality_."

Glowering in annoyance, Seto sat back and reached over to the bedside table, switching on the lamp.

"Look Mutou, I'm trying here, but I'm not some desperate-" The words died on Seto's tongue as he stared at Yuugi's face. His normal violet eyes were a glowing blood red in colour and a sadistic grin contorted his face in a hellishly way. The look chilled Seto to his core. He had seen those eyes before, weeks before at Yuugi's house. They had alarmed him then too. The next moment, to his bewilderment, Yuugi lashed out and pushed him over onto his back with ease, the younger man's hands finding their way to his neck. They locked like a vice grip around it and Seto choked, his air supply effectively cut off. Shocked, he tried to pry the shorter man's hands away from his throat, but Yuugi's hold was nearly inhuman in its strength. His might was not normal and it frightened Seto. Then, when he glanced down at Yuugi's chest, Seto stared in horror at the puzzle-shaped artifact hanging from his neck. Panic bubbled his aching chest. How was the thing here, several kilometers from where they had last left it? Yuugi couldn't have brought it to Seto's place, as the latter had made sure it was still located where it had last appeared before they left the Mutou home. Was it here to harm them? Was it possessing Yuugi and manipulating him to try and kill Seto?

Yuugi let out a laugh and grinned down at his victim beneath him, his hands tightening their hold.

" _Strangulation is a satisfying method of murder. You are too feeble, mortal_ ," Yuugi said slowly, his voice distant sounding and unnatural, " _We will end your pathetic life now. We have the body we need and our strength has returned. This boy's weakness for you and his fear has served us well._ "

Feeling his mind begin to fade and his lungs burn from the lack of oxygen, Seto watched with blurry eyes as Yuugi raised the Puzzle with one hand over his head, its sharp edges glinting menacingly as they hurled down towards the taller boy's face. Turning his head away quickly, the artifact only left a gash along Seto's temple. He then quickly used all of his strength to push Yuugi forcefully off his body, sending the younger man tumbling over the side of bed. Gasping and holding his tender neck, Seto sat up in the tangle of sheets, coughing and gulping in mouthfuls of air. His brown bangs were matted with blood. His ears and head buzzed from the oxygen deprivation and his throat felt like it was on fire. He knew bruises were already blooming there in the form of handprints. Shakily, Seto crawled off the bed and joined his houseguest on the floor. The pendant had slipped from around Yuugi's neck in his fall and the young man was on the carpeted floor, holding his head. Seto reached out, hesitant, and touched Yuugi's shoulder. The contact made the shorter boy open his eyes and Seto was relieved to be greeted by their usual lovely shade of lavender. Yuugi stared at Seto in confusion and sat up, opening his mouth to say something before his gaze fell on the older man's neck.

His hands covered his mouth as his eyes widened in shock, tears filling the purple orbs. He stood still for a moment before he reached out tentatively to touch the bruises then the gash on his lover's forehead. Seto flinched, momentarily wary of the gentle hands he'd come to love that also had attempted to end his life moments before. He knew that Yuugi had not been himself, but the wariness was still there. Seto stared in barely concealed dread at the pendant resting several feet away from them as Yuugi tenderly stroked the bruises forming on his neck.

"S-Seto, what happened?" Yuugi's voice broke and Seto looked down at him cautiously, his blue eyes pained and apprehensive.

\- "I woke up and you were kissing me," Seto knew he shouldn't feel flustered, so he pressed on. "Then you attacked me. You had _that_ thing on."

As he watched the face before his react, Seto saw Yuugi's expression shift from confusion to embarrassment to terror in the span of several seconds. The shorter man's gaze moved to the ominous pendant on the floor beside them and he clung to Seto's arm. In an unconsciously protective gesture, Seto wrapped his arms around Yuugi and pulled them both back against the wall beside the bed, as far away from the looming threat in the bedroom as physically possible. Yuugi shuddered and began to cry, looking up at Seto again in horror and disgust at his involuntary actions.

"It wasn't me. I would never do- I would n-never hurt you... _What the hell is that thing_?" Yuugi's strength crumbled as he covered his face and sobbed quietly into his hands. Watching him with a mix of trepidation at the situation, the need to protect him and a sense of disbelief, Seto pulled Yuugi to his chest and let him cry. He knew the person who had attacked him was not the same person he held. The conclusion only fueled his fear. The situation was getting out of hand and Seto was in over his head. They needed help solving this, before one of them died at the hands of whatever force resided in the puzzle artifact.

Carefully guiding Yuugi to the living room away from the menace in his bedroom, Seto sat the younger man on the sofa. Yuugi trembled and had his arms wrapped tightly around himself, his breathing swallow and rapid. The taller man quickly realized his case subject was having another panic attack and all of his knowledge of how to handle anxiety came to the front of his mind again. Seto kneeled before Yuugi, bringing the two men to the same height, and held his sweaty hands in his own.

"Mutou, you need to calm down or you'll pass out again." The psychology graduate was uncharacteristically gentle as he spoke, bringing one of the other boy's hands to his own chest, right over the area of his heart. Seto tried not to cringe at his own cheesiness; he really was trying to help Yuugi.

"Look at me. Follow my breathing." He took a deep breath, his chest rising slightly as air slowly filled his abdomen. Yuugi, his face red, followed his example, his breathing slowing. They both exhaled after several seconds and repeated the steps, Seto calmly coaching his would-be lover through the relaxation exercise. Yuugi's breathing returned to normal after a few minutes of the exercise. A small smile tilted his lips up and he leant forward to peck Seto's cheek in gratitude, causing the other boy to look away almost shyly.

An hour later, Yuugi was fast asleep curled up on the sofa. After he had calmed the other man, Seto had taken the supernatural artifact and shoved it inside a small safe in his closet, locking it up tightly. He doubted the object would remain confined, but he had to try something. Seto locked his bedroom's door resolutely behind him afterwards. Yuugi, still feeling terrible for Seto's injuries, insisted on fetching the first aid kit and a bag of ice from the kitchen. After cleaning and covering the small cut on the older boy's forehead with a small bandage, Yuugi held the ice gingerly to Seto's neck to help reduce the swelling and bruising. At first, the cold made him flinch in discomfort, but soon it soothed his sore muscles and aching throat. Seto hated the look of guilt that resided on Yuugi's face as the younger man watched him worriedly. He wanted to offer him comfort, but their situation was perilous. Seto had no idea what to do and they desperately needed answers. Instead of tackling the questions he had no proper response to, Seto kissed Yuugi's forehead in a soft and reassuring way. He had to put aside his worries and pride for now. He took care of his would-be lover instead. The feeling of caring for someone else was still new to him.

Seto remained awake, any desire for sleep long past gone. Instead, he thought back to the video and audio clips captured at the Mutou residence before Yuugi had been attacked, the night before. Seto moved over to his desk situated near the sofa and gazed outside at the grey night sky as he booted his laptop. After several moments, he flipped on the camera and audio recorder he had previously used. Connecting the electronics to his laptop, Seto slipped on some headphones and sat back as he replayed the gathered footage.

The camera roll opened on a shot of himself as he set up the device. Fast-forwarding an hour of video, he could see when Yuugi had headed into his bedroom, about fifty minutes before the attack took place. Attentive, the taller boy slowed the footage and counted down the seconds until the incident took place. Though, just thirty seconds before that moment, the video glitched. The screen filled with red static and a loud noise rang out, causing Seto to cringe, before the camera screened cracked. Bewildered, the paranormal investigator pulled up the appropriate file on the audio recorder to compare. After moving past several moments of pointless noise, Seto slowed the audio at the right time to listen for any abnormalities. Like clockwork, an identical loud noise rang out on the clip followed by chilling laughter. Seto pulled off his headset and rubbed his face tiredly.

The young man sat back and sighed, looking over the electronics on his desk. He noted that the camera lens sported a large crack in its glass and the audio recorder no longer functioned when prompted to. _Great_ , Seto thought. He would have to replace the expensive equipment for the psychology department. The day only got worse and it was not yet morning. He closed his eyes and bit back another sigh, his mind weary. When the university opened in a few hours, he would have go and see Professor Ishtar for help. Since the artifact was of Egyptian origins, perhaps the professor could help. Thinking back to Yuugi, Seto realized that he would have to bring the other student with him. He knew he couldn't leave him alone after last night, recalling the look of abject fear on the shorter man's face. Seto only hoped that he would find help for Yuugi before it was too late, before the entity that resided in the puzzle artifact reached whatever goal it had. He feared what would happened to Yuugi if the pendant possessed him again, like it seemingly had hours before.

* * *

And now we know what happened to Kaiba's brother. Enjoy the chapter. Reviews are always appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

**Rating:** T

 **Chapter Warnings:** Implied violence and child abuse, mild sexual content and homosexuality, general creepiness and supernatural themes

* * *

Seto hadn't meant to fall asleep, especially not in his desk chair. When Yuugi woke him up around 7:30, the taller boy groaned quietly at the stiffness settling in his neck and back. He glanced up grumpily at the person who had disturbed his much needed sleep, only for his glare to soften a fraction as he stared up into a pair of apprehensive violet eyes. Yuugi, looking equally exhausted, smiled weakly and placed a cup of tea on the table beside Seto's laptop. The other boy returned to sit on the couch, his gaze fixating on the steaming cup in his hands and a pout tugging at his lips. Seto, observing him from his desk, frowned deeply. The taller student stared at his laptop for a moment before beckoning his would-be lover over. Confused, Yuugi stepped beside him and took the headphones Seto offered him. After explaining what he had found from the data gathered at the other boy's home, the paranormal investigator played the clips back. Yuugi watched and listened keenly. Removing the headphones afterwards and fixing his spiky hair, Yuugi frowned and said,

"So, we have some evidence, but I feel like we're no closer to an answer. The sounds could be linked to the pendant's appearance, but there's no proof." The shorter man looked down, his face grim, before he glanced back at Seto. He seemed to struggle with his next words, as if the truth was hard to admit.

"I'm scared of it. I shouldn't be and I don't want to be, but I am."

Seto bit the inside of his cheek and he hesitated for a moment before he pulled Yuugi to sit on his lap, hugging the other boy to him. Even if the gesture made him a bit uncomfortable, he wanted to give reassurance to his would-be lover. With everything that had happened, it felt like their time together could be cut short at any moment. He had just gained Yuugi in his life and Seto couldn't admit he feared losing him. He didn't want to lose Yuugi. The taller man wanted to give Yuugi and his' relationship a chance, wherever it led them; it was just hard to admit out loud. They both cared for one another, but it was challenging for Seto to give up his tight grasp on control of his life and his emotional state. With the threat of the Egyptian artifact confined only feet away from them, it felt even more difficult to concentrate on their blooming romance. At least together, Yuugi and he could find comfort in each other and forget their respective solitudes and fears. Seto knew he was afraid of giving up control; but letting go was not losing control only to fear the worst, but could be making room for something potentially better to come in.

Yuugi straddled Seto's lap and sighed as his fingers found their way into the mop of brown locks before him. Breathing in the other's sweet musky scent, the taller of the two men relaxed and pressed his face against the other's shoulder, temporarily forgetting about his worries. The game design student stroked the psychology graduate's hair, pecking his head and humming contently in their silent moment. Sitting together like that felt so natural, Seto thought to himself but an unexpected ringing sound disrupted the peaceful scene. Glaring, Seto sat back in his chair and searched in his bag, recognizing the generic ringtone of his Smartphone. Yuugi moved to get off his lap, but Seto held him in place with his free hand while pulling his device out without looking at the caller identification. He accepted the call and answered in a raspy, but clipped tone,

"Kaiba here. This better be important."

\- "Hello Kaiba. I see that you're always as pleasant in the morning as any other time of the day." The voice of his mentor, Isis Ishtar, rang out calmly from the other line. Frowning, Seto relaxed a bit and glanced at Yuugi, who observed him curiously.

"It's been a long night, Professor," was the only explanation the graduate student gave, hesitant to go into detail over the phone, but Isis was one step ahead of him.

\- "I know it has. That is why I'm calling you." Seto looked at his phone incredulously. "I want you to come to my office in an hour. Please bring Mister Mutou and the pendant. Be careful when handling it." The older woman finished curtly and hung up, leaving behind a baffled mentee. Seto put his phone down carefully, mildly freaked out. How did Professor Ishtar know about what had happened the night before? Could Yuugi have told her about his artifact previously? The professor had done something like this in the past, seemingly knowing information she should not. Seto nearly wondered if the psychologist-turned-teacher had psychic powers of her own, but he scoffed and rejected the idea.

"That woman is bizarre," he mumbled under his breath.

\- "Was it Professor Ishtar?" Yuugi asked and Seto nodded in response.

\- "I was going to suggest that we should go and see her. She's Egyptian, so she might know something about your artifact. If nothing else, she has a lot of knowledge on haunted and cursed items."

Rubbing his face, the older boy suggested they should wash up before leaving. Nodding, Yuugi headed to the bathroom for a quick shower after Seto handed him a towel. While he waited, Seto made them a small breakfast of toast, which he ate while staring absently out the living room window. He was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't feel Yuugi's hand on his arm after the other man had returned to the living room, showered and dressed in fitted leather pants and his usual choker necklace and silver chain. He held his black shirt in his hands and covered his chest with it modestly. Seto looked up and realized Yuugi also held the first aid kit. Remembering the latter's injury, he made Yuugi sit on a chair as he cleaned and redressed the wounds on the younger's shoulder. The scratches were healing well and the older student rubbed an antibacterial ointment on them before placing a light bandage over the area. He was suddenly grateful for the forced first aid classes Professor Ishtar insisted all of the psychology graduates attend. Yuugi thanked him and slipped on his shirt. Seto caught himself staring at the younger man and bit the inside of his cheek. He had to admit that his would-be lover looked good in leather. Shaking his head, Seto blinked and chuckled lightly when Yuugi stood on his tip toes to check his forehead wound. The taller boy sat to make his companion's task easier. The game design student cleaned and redressed the healing wound before smiling to Seto, causing the other to look away, secretly timid.

After a much needed cold shower to calm and wake him up simultaneously, Seto stood in his bedroom with his hair still damped, dressed in his favorite pair of dark jeans and a grey turtleneck sweater to hide the ugly bruises wrapped around his throat. He stared uneasily in the direction of his closet. Yuugi, who had finished wolfing down the rest of their shared breakfast, stood in the bedroom doorway with a look of thinly masked terror. The shorter man watched as he carefully opened the door and reached down to unlock the small, closeted black safe positioned on the floor. Seto held his breath until he opened the safe door and saw the artifact resting innocently where he had left it the previous night. Picking the thing up by its lace, the mere action of holding it turned Seto's stomach. It was still where he had left it and Seto wondered if the artifact had the ability to teleport or displace itself at will. If so, the object was toying with them by remaining in the safe. He took a familiar golden sarcophagus-shaped box from Yuugi's hands and placed the artifact back in it, as it was when he first found it.

Seto didn't relax until he set the box on his dresser and stepped back, feeling Yuugi move to stand behind him. When the other boy called his name quietly, he broke his gaze on the pendant and glanced back at Yuugi. The shorter man stood there looking at him, his violet gaze clouded with unease. Seto wrapped his arms around Yuugi in a loose, comforting hug. The sensation of openly reassuring another person still felt odd to him, but it was not entirely unwelcomed. By the way Yuugi sighed and buried his face against Seto's shoulder the taller boy knew that his discomfort was worth it.

* * *

The walk from his apartment to the university campus was a nerve-wrecking experience. Seto felt anxious as he carried the golden box containing Yuugi's pyramid-shaped pendant in his bag and the object felt like a set of heavy weights in his hold. He wasn't a nervous person and he hated the way the thing made him feel, but the older boy preferred to be the one carrying it, rather than his shorter companion. He feared what would happen if Yuugi came into direct contact with the artifact again. Since the shorter man seemed to be the chosen target of the pendant's malicious intent, it would likely possess him again, as in the cases of other people who had fallen victim to a cursed object. Even without touching it, the pendant sent shivers up and down Seto's spine. Yuugi sensed his unease and he let his hand brush against the taller man's several times, his fingers briefly curling around Seto's in a small, prudent gesture of reassurance. It gave the latter a small measure of comfort. It also made him realize that Yuugi was a strong man, despite his misleading stature. Now outside the walls of Seto's apartment where the terror had occurred, Yuugi was the one putting on a brave front despite the ever-present danger looming over them.

Seto was relieved when they entered the psychology department's building. He guided Yuugi to the main office and knocked on the closed door. The staff had not yet arrived, as weekend classes only began in an hour's time. The door opened a moment later to reveal Professor Ishtar. The woman was dressed in a traditional garb from her home country of Egypt, her long black hair left loose under her gold headpiece. Her usual stoic face held a look full of concern, her dark blue eyes falling on the two students standing before her. After a pause, she led them into the empty office and down the short hallway to her private work space. The professor only had one available seat for her guests, so Seto discreetly pushed Yuugi in the small of his back to the singular chair, opting to stand behind it after he removed the golden box from his bag and set it on the desk before them.

Isis sat in her own seat, her dark gaze fixing on the artifact in its containment with a blank look, letting nothing of her thoughts be known. She then looked up at Seto as he stood behind Yuugi's chair.

"Tell me," the professor said, her tone neutral, "what happened last night."

Seto bit the inside of his cheek, as he often did when he hesitated, before he nodded and began to speak.

"Two nights ago, at Mutou's house, he was attacked in his sleep by _something_ we couldn't see." Seto thought back to the scene and added, "I noticed none of the windows or doors were unlocked, so it wasn't an intruder" He glanced at Yuugi as the other unconsciously touched a hand to his injured shoulder and shuddered. Scowling slightly, Seto pulled out the parapsychology unit's broken camera and audio recorder from his bag.

"The electronics caught footage and audio, but now they're both broken. I don't know what happened to them, but I have the files." Seto hesitated to tell the whole truth about his and Yuugi's evening to his mentor. The psychology student wanted to keep his affairs private and he wasn't ready to talk about his blossoming feelings for the shorter boy just yet, less of all with his professor, so he continued with a half truth.

"Afterwards, I thought it was safer to leave and go to my apartment. We left the artifact behind, but last night, Yuugi somehow came into contact with it and tried to kill me." His last words sent a sharp throb of pain down Seto's throat as he pulled down the high collar of his shirt to reveal the hideous blue-purple bruises beneath. He finally noticed the hoarseness of his own voice. He caught a glimpse of Yuugi's face in his peripheral vision and held back a frown at the guilt in his lovely violet eyes. He readjusted his collar and Professor Ishtar gave only a subtle nod, though her eyes had widen a bit at the sight of her student's battered neck. The professor glanced at Yuugi, who had remained silent during the whole exchange, and asked calmly,

"Mister Mutou, do you remember this attack? Do you recall finding the artifact?"

\- "No, Professor. I know we left it at my place after the first incident, but I don't know how it appeared at Kaiba's apartment. I remember I fell asleep on..." Yuugi tried to conceal his blush by bowing his head slightly, but Seto still caught it from his position.

"I fell asleep on the couch. I had one of those nightmares I told you about when we first met, and then the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor of Kaiba's bedroom after he threw me off of him."

Yuugi finished his explanation and nervously toyed with the silver rings on the chain around his neck, his parents' wedding bands. Seto sighed and looked away from his would-be lover to speak to his teacher,

"Professor, whoever it was that attacked me was not Mutou. His voice, his face..." The images of those haunting red eyes and that twisted grin were seared into Seto's memory all too vividly. "Whatever it was, it spoke to me. It said that it had a body and the strength it needed to 'return'. I'm not sure what it meant by that. It also understood Japanese. I wonder if it had anything to do with Yuugi's memories."

Miss Ishtar's face only grew grimmer at Seto's words, her hands clamped tightly in her lap. She remained silent for a moment before she glanced at Yuugi and spoke slowly,

"My family has long held onto the supernatural and spiritual beliefs of our ancestors. I come from a line of magic wielders going back to Ancient Egypt. While my ancestors have always used their magic for good, there were many in the time of the Pharaohs who sought to do evil with their powers, as cliché as that may sound." The professor waved to the golden object in front of her before she continued,

"There's a long standing legend that this artifact was created with several others to serve evil sorcerers who wanted to overthrow their king and rule over Egypt. These items lead to a devastating war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and no one is completely certain how it ended, only that the items were hidden away for the sake of humanity. The legend goes that sorcerers used a dark power to lock their souls in the items in the hopes that one day they could be reborn."

Seto listened to Isis's tale of evil magicians and ancient curses with a barely contained sneer. While he knew that the gold artifact held something dangerous, he had a hard time believing the professor's family legend.

"I didn't know you were also a history fanatic, Professor." Seto said flatly and Isis glared at him for his disrespect, causing her student to wisely bite back any further remarks as she continued,

"The artifacts were called the 'Millennium Items" and this one in particular" she nodded to the box before her again, "is the Millennium Puzzle. I believe that there is an evil presence trapped in it and I'm afraid of its capabilities. If it's already possessed Mister Mutou, it means it will do it again. It has selected him as its new host."

The confirmation of Seto's fears did nothing but make his heart clench in his chest as he stared down at Yuugi. The other man sat still in his seat, his eyes wide with momentary panic, and Seto felt anger bubble in his chest.

"What do you mean, it'll possess him again?" The blue-eyed boy angrily asked the woman seated across the desk. He knew her words to be true; Yuugi had already been possessed by the Puzzle twice before. "Cases of demonic possession usually mean that the person remains possessed until the entity is taken care of. The victim doesn't revert to seeming normal because they can't even control their own body during the whole experience. There've only been a few cases that were later debunked-"

"Kaiba, I will remind you this is not the typical magic of Western origins that we're talking about." Miss Ishtar replied firmly, her eyes unreadable. "This is a magic more ancient then that, and much darker. People lost their lives and souls to the Dark Games played in Egypt at the time." The woman stood and walked to a bookcase beside her desk, pulling out a large, well-worn volume. She opened it to a certain page before sliding the book across the desk towards the two students before her.

"This speaks of everything I've just explained. It's a research journal from an English archeologist dated _circa_ 1908, during an excavation in the Valley of the Kings. Please read this while I leave to make a phone call." Isis bowed her head lightly before she quietly left the office, leaving the two young men to read over the volume on the desk.

Seto tightened his grip over the back of Yuugi's seat as he briefly read over several paragraphs of the pages before them. It seems that a group of English archeologists had come into contact with these "Millennium Items" during a dig in a secluded area of the Valley of the Kings. Nearly everyone who had seen the items met sudden, questionable deaths or became insane. The author himself was barely coherent in some parts of the text, leading Seto to question the man's sanity. It also made him glance at Yuugi, his heart feeling cold. He had not felt terror of that caliber since the day Mokuba disappeared, or since the morning he found his mother in a bathtub filled with water and her blood. If any of this was true, Yuugi was not safe. If there was even an ounce of truth to it, it meant Yuugi might die at the hands of a malevolent spirit bent on a twisted form of vengeance.

When Seto reached out to touch Yuugi's shoulder, the look the younger man gave him was unreadable as he placed his own hand over Seto's. Yuugi sighed and closed his eyes, his head instinctively leaning against the older boy's forearm. Just when Seto thought he would have answers, it only seemed like he wouldn't be able to help his lover. Even the other boy gave him a desolate look. Yuugi really believe that nothing could be done. It was the same look Seto's mother wore after his brother's death. Seto opened his mouth to say something, anything to reassure Yuugi, but instead quietly pulled his hand away when Isis re-entered her office.

The professor stood behind her desk with a bleak facial expression. She heaved a sigh before speaking,

"I've spoken with someone who's had... experience with another 'Millennium Item' before. The only insight he had was that we should try and contact the spirit inside the Puzzle to ask it what it wants. It may be possible to ask it to leave in peace from this world for the afterlife. I agree, but making contact could be risky."

\- "You're telling us we should hold some kind of séance to communicate with this thing?" Seto asked flatly, doubt clear on his face "If I did believe everything you said up until now Professor, would a séance even work? You said it yourself that this entity isn't typical."

\- "Kaiba," Miss Ishtar closed her eyes tiredly, trying to reason with her pupil, "I know of your scepticism for the whole notion of parapsychology and supernatural phenomena, but you've seen firsthand what this entity can do. I fear that it will kill someone soon." The student swallowed hard at his mentor's words, knowing them to be true once again. The injuries both he and Yuugi bore were proof enough.

"I know that you want to help somehow. That's why you joined our unit, to help those affected by the unknown and unexplained, be it real ok fake, so they won't be victims." The words _like you_ went unsaid by the professor, but Seto heard them loud and clear in his mind. Again, he looked at Yuugi as the younger man stared back at him with his trusting, hopeful violet gaze. Seto gave in, subtly nodding his agreement.

The professor sat back and folded her hands over her desk, her eyes pensive. The room was quiet for several long moments before Yuugi piped up from his seat, his violet gaze bright as he seemed to work something over in his mind,

"Professor, if we can't connect with the spirit of the Puzzle in any other way, maybe I could try? I mean, I could let it take over me again."

Seto snapped his attention to the shorter man, his eyes wide in disbelief. He was speechless at Yuugi's willingness to put his life in potential danger. He said nothing but continued to stare at him as Isis hummed in thought.

"It could work, but it would be very dangerous, Mister Mutou. I've personally seen what harm comes to those possessed by these artifacts," the professor explained coolly. "Are you ready for whatever consequences might come from this? We might not even be able to get a response from the spirit." Seto glared angrily at Yuugi from behind, a feeling of betrayal weighting heavily on his chest. The shorter student wisely avoided the taller one's scowl as he kept his eyes on the teacher and nodded.

"What other choice do I have?" Yuugi said gently, his lavender gaze finally fixing on Seto as he continued more quietly, "I don't want anyone else to be hurt. Obviously, whatever this thing wants... It's chosen me because I put the Puzzle together and allowed it to be free. If we let it have what it wants, I might be able to get answers. Otherwise, it could just haunt me forever... That's not a life to live. I don't want to be scared anymore."

Yuugi's face held a sort of determination in place his earlier resignation. Professor Ishtar closed her dark eyes and attempted to hold her face in a impartial expression that barely hid her frown. She nodded and pulled out a Smartphone from the pocket of her dress, opening her eyes to stare at the two students before her.

"Very well. We must solve this quickly, so we will try and initiate the contact tonight at midnight, when the spiritual world's connection to ours is at its strongest." The Egyptian glanced at the golden box still sitting on her desk and said, "I will keep this here. It's safer; I at least have knowledge of how to handle cursed objects."

Seto didn't wait for his professor to say more before he stormed out of her office, his heart clenching painfully in his chest. He could hear Yuugi calling after him but the taller boy hurried out of the psychology department's building, using his long legs to his advantage to put distance between him and his would-be lover. The hurt he felt inside threatened to consume him as he rushed back to his apartment. Seto knew he shouldn't have left his heart exposed, because the one person he cared for was about to throw his life away for something that may actually kill him. Seto couldn't be part of that; the idea of seeing Yuugi hurt or worse made his heart ache more.

He realized that he had finally reached his apartment when he stood before a door with a familiar set of numbers nailed to it. Seto shakily entered the dark space and shut the door behind him, resting his forehead against it. Minutes passed in absolute silence, the sound of his panting and his racing heart being his only companions. Seto was unsurprised by a loud pounding suddenly coming from the other side of the wood panel. Yuugi's voice was panicked as he knocked on the door loudly.

"Seto, please open the door! You don't understand-" The spiky haired boy yelped as the door swung open abruptly, causing him to tumble inside and right into Seto's arms. Yuugi looked up at him in relief and began to speak, but his words were quickly cut off as Seto slammed the door shut and cornered him against the panel. The look of resentment and distress in the older boy's icy blue eyes showed his sense of betrayal. Placing his hands flat on the wood surface beside Yuugi's head, Seto bit the inside of his cheek to keep from yelling. His voice was pained and unsteady as he stared down at the younger man before him.

"First, you make me trust you and care for you. Now you're just going to put your life in danger for what; a fairytale from a time where people believed anything and everything they couldn't explain was due to evil spirits haunting them?" Seto growled and hit the door before him with his fist, noting the slight flinch Yuugi attempted to hide as he turned his head away from him. The terror inside of him burned brighter as the taller of the two men pulled the shorter one along with him to the kitchen, Yuugi resisting against Seto's hold as he asked him to stop for a moment.

Once standing before the small kitchen island, Seto shoved the objects littering the surface off, letting them fall noisily to the floor without a care. He then used his height and greater physical strength to lift Yuugi onto the counter top, moving to stand between the other boy's legs and caging him in place with his arms on either side of his body. Staring at him in apprehension, Yuugi tried to move away but Seto instead held his chin and leaned in closer for a hurried, sloppy kiss. His fear clouded his judgement and he knew the wrong he was committing; in his heart he didn't want to hurt Yuugi, but Seto struggled to find a way, _any_ way to explain to his would-be lover the emotions raging a war in his mind. As he forced the other man to lay back on the counter surface, his lips becoming more insistent against the reluctant pair beneath them, tears burned behind his eyes. Seto could feel Yuugi's hands pushing at his arms and shoulders, strong but not quite strong enough to fight off the taller boy. He turned his lips and attention to the neck before him, sucking a bright mark on the skin under the other man's choker. His would-be lover choked back a gasp and Seto could hear the panic in Yuugi's voice as he held his broad shoulders.

"Please Seto, stop. Please..." He was crying and begging Seto to stop. The words made him pull away and set his eyes on the view before him; Yuugi laid on the marble countertop with his clothes askew and tears on his face, his violet eyes darkened by hurt and alarm. He feared him, even if only momentarily. Seto's mind blanked and he held Yuugi's waist, his hands shaking violently. The taller man gasped as he let out a silent cry, his eyes clenched tightly shut. When a pair of warm, tender hands hesitantly cupped his face, Seto looked up and stared into the face of the person he cared about more than anyone else alive. Even if the extent of his attachment to Yuugi remained unclear, he admitted to himself that his fear when faced with the possible loss of the other man suffocated him; losing Yuugi would destroy him. Seto couldn't bear to lose again, not when he had only just found Yuugi and their mutual feelings and their bond were still flourishing. And now, Seto couldn't look the younger man in the eyes as he felt like a monster for forcing himself onto him, even if he had only meant to show Yuugi his feelings. He felt that he was no better than the sick bastard who tortured and killed his little brother. What had he done?

Yuugi turned his gaze back to his own, purple meeting blue, and Seto bit back another sob. The look the younger man gave him, a gentle smile full of adoration and forgiveness, took his breath away. Yuugi forgave him, even after the way he behaved, and Seto felt like the luckiest bastard in the world to know such a benevolent person. His hand shook as he reached up to touch the one resting on his cheek and Seto opened his mouth to speak, despite the tears attempting to choke him,

"I... I can't lose you. You made me care about you and now I can't- I don't want to be without you. If you get hurt trying to communicate with this entity, I don't know what I will do..."

Shaking his head, Yuugi pulled Seto into a tight hug. The older of the two wrapped his arms around him unsteadily, taking in the warmth and sweet scent surrounding him. It calmed his senses. He realized that the shorter boy wore some type of light cologne; it was a lovely scent on him. Yuugi cradled him in his hold, humming and nuzzling against Seto's hair gently, trying to reassure the older man. Seto Kaiba had always seemed so cold and indifferent so strong and steady, and now he was vulnerable and trembling in his arms. Yuugi tried to hide his own shaking as he looked into the heartbroken blue eyes he'd come to adore and spoke softly,

"I don't know what else I can do, Seto. I can hide in fear of some thousand year old entity with a taste for my blood and worry about it hurting me or anyone I love." Yuugi bit his lip hard, the skin turning blood red, as his voice cracked slightly, "Since the night Grandpa died, I've been afraid. I was afraid of being alone. I was afraid of some unseen force haunting me and now I'm afraid of losing you. I want to keep you safe. I have to fight this thing. I _want_ to stop being afraid, because I have something to fight for." Yuugi wiped Seto's eyes cheeks and whispered, "I care about you and I need you, Seto. Please, let me do this.'

* * *

We're counting down to the last chapter, which is the next one! I can't believe its almost done already. There will be an epilogue afterwards, taking place 11 months after chapter 6. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy!


	6. Chapter 6

**Rating:** M

 **Chapter Warnings:** Graphic violence and general creepiness and supernatural themes

* * *

After the incident in the kitchen, the two students spent the rest of the morning quietly cuddling on Seto's sofa. The need for reassurance kept them clinging to each other and the action offered both a great measure of comfort. Despite their undefined feelings towards one another, they both felt right at home in the other's hold. Seto spent most of the time with his face buried against Yuugi's neck, inhaling the younger man's scent. He felt a little creepy, but Yuugi really did smell good to him. He drifted contently between a state of sleep and wakefulness, his mind too tired for anything else. When Yuugi finally nudged him awake, it was well past 14:00. With a small smile, his would-be lover left for the kitchen in an attempt to make them a late lunch. While Seto worried about the state of his kitchen under Yuugi's care, he instead moved to distract himself with some reading for one of his classes. Through concentration, his workaholic tendencies resurfaced and he managed to get several pages read and annotated before Yuugi returned with two plats of slightly burnt vegetable fried rice. He had a secret affinity for junk food; after all the older man had seen the countless take-out bags in the trash at Yuugi's house. Seto appreciated his effort to serve a healthier meal and accepted the offered dish without complaint. The gesture earned a bright smile from the younger boy and sent the elder's heart beating to a slightly faster pace.

They ate quietly and Seto found himself watching the time. The hands of the clock ticked down to midnight far too fast for his taste and his unease returned. He found himself unable to finish his plat, not because of the slightly off taste, but due to the growing knot in his gut. After some protest from the shorter boy, Seto picked up their dishes to clean, heading to a surprisingly unscathed kitchen. When he returned to the living room, he found Yuugi sitting on the floor before the coffee table typing away on his laptop, handling some school assignments. While the mundane sight seemed misplaced in their current situation, Seto tried for the sake of his could-be lover to act as normal as possible. It was strange for the older boy to catch a glimpse into what their life together could be like under ordinary circumstances. Since they had met, the situations they had been in were anything but normal. Their bond had been established under extraordinary conditions. Though, as Seto sat back on his couch with his textbook in his lap, Yuugi seated on the floor beside him with his eyes still trained on his computer, the taller man found comfort in the calmness surrounding them. He had always thought that spending time with another person, be it a friend or a lover, would feel more insufferable and disruptive to his life and routine; he had been alone for so long that solitude was comforting to him. But Yuugi unsurprisingly fit in perfectly, adapting without a hitch to Seto. He offered a quiet companionship to the older boy; while the game design student may be stubborn and a handful at times, Seto struggled to imagine his future day-to-day life without him.

Seto had almost forgotten their lack of sleep from the previous night and was surprised when he woke unexpectedly from a late evening nap. He had dropped his textbook on the floor beside the couch and had moved to lie back on the cosy divan. Yuugi had fallen asleep with his unruly head of hair resting against the couch cushion beside Seto, their hands only inches apart. The taller boy let the other sleep, opting to watch him instead. The clock indicated it was past 22:30 and Seto glared at the object on the wall opposite the couch. Time had slipped by too rapidly that day. He sighed heavily, causing Yuugi to stir from his slumber and groggily call Seto's name. He looked up at him with a sleepy smile and Seto couldn't resist pulling Yuugi into a gentle kiss.

The action was calm and pleasant, unlike their last mess of a kiss Seto hoped he could only forget about. He was ashamed of his earlier actions; the way Yuugi had looked at him with alarm would never leave him. Then, when his lover had proclaimed his desire to protect Seto by offering himself up to the demon of the "Millennium Puzzle", it reminded the taller man of how they were both still learning about each other, from each other. Seto had seen Yuugi's inner strength before, but this willingness to put himself in harm's way despite his fears proved to the psychology graduate that his would-be lover's feelings for him were genuine. Seto had had a moment of doubt, when Yuugi volunteered to initiate contact with the entity of the artifact, but he no longer doubted. He was willing to let go of his need for control of their whole insane situation to prove to Yuugi that he cared about and trusted him. Yuugi had made his decision. Seto laced his fingers with his companion's, which caused the latter to wake, and realized that he wanted to fight for _them_. He wanted to fight for their safety and their future. He may not have been able to do anything to save Mokuba or their mother, but he could do something for Yuugi. If it meant letting go and facing the unknown, facing _any_ amount of risk, it could be worth it in the end to get answers and a conclusion. They could fight this spirit together. Seto _needed_ to support Yuugi.

Seto tugged Yuugi up on the sofa and pulled him in for a deep kiss. Their 'love' was new and tentative, thrilling and fascinating; Seto didn't want to mess up his unexpected chance at a brighter future. He wanted them to go slowly and let their relationship grow as organically as possible given their situation. When Yuugi sat back on the couch beside him and smiled, his violet eyes gleaming even in the low moonlight flittering in through the windows, the view made Seto's heart skip a beat. Their future could be bright and the only thing standing in their way would have to be defeated, together. Yuugi leaned down and kissed Seto once again as the clock struck 23:00.

* * *

The pair walked back towards the university campus around 23:45. A part of Seto wanted the walk to drag on for as long as possible, but he knew time was ticking down. They had already entered the psychology department's main facility before he knew it and Seto regretted not holding Yuugi's hand on their way to the school. Shaking his head, the psychology student led them to the rendezvous point, in front of the main office space. Some lights in the building remained on, as many students stayed behind till the early hours of the morning to study as midterm exams approached. It helped guide their way and reassured them.

In front of the office stood Isis with a stranger Seto didn't recognize. The young man had long white hair, light eyes and tanned skin. He seemed to be around Yuugi's age. When he looked between the kid and his professor, Seto noted several resemblances and wondered if they were somehow related. His question was answered as Professor Ishtar nodded her head and waved to the man beside her,

"Kaiba and Mutou, this is my brother Malik. He has... had contact with another 'Millennium Item' in the past and I thought his input could be of value. I've given him the information we currently have."

Seto gave no acknowledgement to Malik while Yuugi gave a quick bow. In return, the white-haired man bowed and smiled, his eyes wondering curiously to the shorter of the two students. While he knew that his companion only acted politely as Yuugi smiled back at Malik, Seto didn't stop the glare he aimed at the Egyptian, a hint of jealousy crossing his mind; but when the Ishtar siblings turned to lead the students away from the main office and Yuugi reached down to briefly squeeze his hand, Seto calmed immediately. He was being ridiculous, he thought, and glanced at the shorter man as the latter gave him a inquisitive look.

The group headed towards an empty hallway filled with conferences room and a study hall that had fallen into disuse several years before. It was in a quieter part of the building and away from most people. They stopped in front of a plain door and Isis unlocked it with a set of keys from her dress pocket. As the headmistress of the psychology department, she had access to all of the rooms in the facility and that privilege was to their benefit that night. Seto entered the room right behind Yuugi; it was once a conference room that had been emptied save for several chairs placed to the side. Seto recognized it from the previous semester, as the parapsychology unit had utilized the space in a séance for one of their cases. The room was likely already a good conductor to the spiritual world, if any of that stuff was true. His eyes wondered to his professor as the woman handled a wooden box that had previously gone unnoticed. She opened it and handed several items to her younger brother. She nodded to Seto as she caught his gaze and explained,

"We will set up a few items first. Please wait patiently." Seto nodded curtly in reply and looked to Yuugi as the latter fidgeted by his side. As he gazed at his face, the older man knew his companion well enough to be able to read his growing apprehension. He wanted to hold him and comfort him, but Seto wasn't sure that Yuugi or he would be okay with an open display of affection in front of other people. They hadn't even labelled their relationship yet; it would only make things awkward if Professor Ishtar asked questions. So Seto instead folded his arms and kept to himself for several moments before his professor approached them with a small bundle in her hands.

Glancing at it, Seto could make out a small sachet with an eye of Horus on its front. It emitted a strong, herbed scent. Isis closed Yuugi's hands over it, explained it to be a charm of protection he should keep on his person. As the professor stepped away, Yuugi cradled the small bag in his hands and brought them to his chest, closing his eyes in what seemed like a silent prayer. Frowning, Seto turned his head away from the other boy to give him some privacy. At the same time, he thought to say a small prayer to a deity he longed stopped believing in to ask for any measure of protection for Yuugi; he would need all he could get.

Seto and Yuugi both opened their eyes as Isis called them. When he glanced around the room, Seto could see lit candles littering the space and casting it in a dim glow. The smell of incense clung heavily in the air and a single chair was centered in a circular symbol on the floor across the room. Yuugi was asked to take a seat in the chair as Professor Ishtar stood nearby with the box containing the puzzle artifact placed gingerly on a tray in her hands so she wouldn't touch it directly. Beside her, her brother Malik gave the box a look of dread and something Seto recognized as pain. He wondered how the Egyptian man was connected to the "Millennium Items", as Isis said he had had contact with them in the past. But Seto's attention shifted to Yuugi as the shorter man tucked Isis' charm into his pocket and slowly stepped over to the seat laid out for him, his purple gaze fixed anxiously on his would-be lover several feet away as he sat. Suddenly, Seto badly wanted for himself to be right and for the whole thing to be a bad joke. He wanted none of it to be real; he didn't want there to be an entity threatening to kill his lover. The distance between him and the shorter man felt like miles to Seto and his heart ached, wanting to go and switch places with Yuugi. Unfortunately, the target of the Puzzle's demon was already determined.

Isis hummed and said a quiet hymn, Malik joining her, in what Seto assumed to be Arabic or more than likely, Kemetic. He stepped closer, his palms sweating but his fingers cold, and looked on as Isis moved forward to hand Yuugi the artifact and he could see the panic clear in the shorter man's eyes.

"Wait!" Seto said too loudly in the overtly quiet room and stepped forward to take the box from Isis. After a curious look from his teacher, he went over to Yuugi, who sat perfectly still in his seat. The golden box in his bare hands felt like ice that could chill one's soul and sent those familiar and unwanted shivers up his spine. Seto took a deep breath as he stood before Yuugi, the latter trying to hide his anxiety before his would-be lover and the evil he held in his hands. The pair shared a long look filled with trepidation and reluctance, until Yuugi held out his hands for the box. When Seto set it in his hold, he found himself brushing the shorter boy's fingers with his in an attempt at reassurance. Yuugi looked up at him with tears in his eyes and while Seto wanted to pull back and end the whole experiment right there, right then, he couldn't. He knew they couldn't stop now. Instead, he opened his mouth and whispered lowly, so only Yuugi could hear,

"I won't let anything happen to you." It was a seldom promise and Seto Kaiba never went back on his word. A single tear rolled down the shorter man's cheek and the psychology student wanted nothing more than to brush it away. When Yuugi murmured his name and took hold of the box, Seto let go and stepped back towards Professor Ishtar and her brother. Time slowed to a crawl as he watched Yuugi breathe deeply, remove the Puzzle from its containment and slip its leather string over his spiky head of hair. With a renewed sense of determination on his face, Yuugi put the box on the floor beside him and sat back, glancing at Seto one more time before he closed his eyes. Beside Seto, Isis stepped forward and clutched a sachet similar to the one she had given Yuugi in her hands. Her face was set in a determined expression as she stared at the seated student ahead of them.

"Is there a spirit who wishes to make contact with us?" Isis questioned cautiously after several moments of silence and Seto turned to stare at Yuugi as the latter remained still. Nothing happened immediately and the room filled with an eerie stillness. Finally, there was a shift in the air and Yuugi gave a violent shudder before his eyes reopened. Alarm settled like a heavy stone in Seto's stomach and his fists clenched as he looked into the familiar, blood red eyes of the entity that had tried to kill him the previous day. Yuugi's face contorted into a sick grin as the spirit controlling his body sat up straighter in its seat and set its eyes upon the group before it like a predator honing in on his prey. Isis stood her ground even under the chilling gaze the spirit set on her. She moved to stand before Malik in what Seto noted as a protective stance before the professor continued her questioning.

" _What are you doing here, evil spirit? Why have you taken hold of this boy's mind and body? Who are you?_ " Isis asked several questions in Kemetic. The psychology student stared at his professor in confusion and frustration until Malik leant closer to translate for him, stopping his agitation. Seto stared carefully towards Yuugi as the spirit laughed and stood while cradling the artifact against its chest between its hands.

" _You are brave, woman, to speak to us in such a manner. We should kill you first_." Yuugi gave another sadistic grin and Seto didn't need for Malik to translate to know that the spirit had just uttered a threat. Isis let the menacing words wash over her like water over a duck's feathers and waited patiently for the entity to answer. The latter chuckled darkly and stepped towards the trio as it spoke,

" _We are Atem, powerful High Priest to Pharaoh Akhenaden. We are here to continue our work and we must take possession of a body to do so. This boy solved our Puzzle and released us from our prison. He was perfect, weak minded with his grief and feelings for_ him _. We have killed his grandfather and now we will end his lover and friends. He will give in to his despair and he will be ours._ " Isis and Malik both looked back at Seto as the Egyptian spirit pointed to the Japanese man. Seto stared back, confused, until Malik translated the entity's words to his native tongue. Rage flared up in him at the entity's mockery of Yuugi. Stepping forward, the tall young man could care less about the entity's powers as he snapped back furiously,

"What do you want with us!? Have you not caused enough harm?" Malik pulled Seto back by the arm as Isis moved before them, talking again to the spirit in Kemetic. Growling lowly, Seto threw off the younger Egyptian's hand and glared at him, his blue eyes icy and threatening. Malik shook his head and whispered lowly,

"You'll get him killed if you anger the spirit. I know from experience, it will not hesitate to murder its host-" Seto opened his mouth to ask how Malik knew what he said for fact as the spirit in Yuugi's body spoke up again, this time in Japanese,

" _We want power; the ultimate power given to us by the Millennium Items. We will overthrow the Pharaoh and rule over Egypt as its king_." Yuugi gave another dark laugh, highlighting the true insanity of the spirit misplaced in time, mentally unstable and worse, murderous. The shorter man moved quickly, so quickly the movement could not be human. The entity stood before Isis and grabbed the professor by the throat before anyone could react, lifting her effortlessly from the ground with strength Yuugi's mortal body couldn't possibly have. It gave a bone-chilling cackle as it tightened its hold and the professor gasped helplessly. Seto and Malik moved at the same time to try and free Isis from the malicious spirit's grip but were repelled by a force that sent them tumbling back several feet. Atem, the entity, had not moved, but a menacing red aura surrounded him, making his eyes glow dangerously as he guffawed once more. Seto groaned and struggled to sit up on the floor of the empty conference room, his back throbbing in pain where it had made contact with the cold concrete. He looked on in panic as Yuugi, not being in possession of his own body, squeezed the life out of Isis as the professor's face turned a deep shade of purple. Standing up, Seto stepped closer and called to the shorter man in a desperate attempt to reach him,

"Fight him Yuugi! Don't let him win over you; you're stronger than that!"

The use of his given name by Seto, the first time the older man had acknowledged him as so, must have reached Yuugi's buried conscious and allowed the younger man to briefly regain control of his body. Isis dropped to the floor as Yuugi yelped and held his head, as if pained. Malik scrambled forward to take his older sister and pull her away as the professor coughed and gasped desperately for air. But Yuugi's control slipped and the entity inside of him cried out angrily as it raised its hand. A dark force shot out and hit the Ishtar siblings, sending them sailing back against the wall behind them, where both of them fell to the floor and moaned in pain. Seto looked at the two Egyptians and turned his glare back to Yuugi, more specifically to the thing controlling his body. The entity merely grinned and looked at Seto, its fiery red gaze freezing him in place. The paranormal investigator bit back the fear-induced bile lingering at the back of his throat as Yuugi approached him, his haunting eyes holding homicidal intent. He couldn't move his limbs at all and the entity before him was moments away from killing him in cold blood, using Seto's lover's body to carry out the heinous act. The only thing he could do was to stare down the spirit with all of the ferocity he could muster, attempting to show no fear.

Seto held his breath as the spirit of the Puzzle stood before him, reaching to stroke the healing gash across the taller boy's temple. The latter wanted to spit at the devil before him and would have had it not been in Yuugi's body. Instead he continued to glare at it. He would not show the thing fear. Seto knew he needed to reach Yuugi again, though the younger man was obviously held at bay by the entity controlling his body. It was a desperate, likely vain attempt, but Seto couldn't not try to save Yuugi. He had promised to protect him, as the other boy had promised the same to him, and he would fight for that promise even if it cost him his life.

"Yuugi," Seto whispered tiredly, looking into the eyes he treasured, now corrupted by malevolence beyond measure. He wanted to believe that Yuugi was still in there, as he had shown, and that he could stop the spirit from killing them all. If his smaller lover let the spirit using him do the unthinkable, Yuugi could never live with his guilt. Seto thought that if Yuugi had brought the monster to life by completing the "Millennium Puzzle", he should have the power to end it. If only he could think of a way to eliminate the artifact...

Seto's eyes widen with realization as the entity, through Yuugi's facial expressions, frowned deeply. The taller of the two struggled to open his mouth, ready to shout his revelation to the other boy trapped in his own body. The spirit possessing Yuugi must have read his mind and lifted his hand, effortlessly sending Seto flying back into the nearby wall. He hit the floor with force and nearly fainted from the impact to the back of his skull, but kept his bleary vision on Yuugi as the latter stood several paces away from him. The shorter man's expression contorted in pain again and for a moment in the faint light of the room, Seto caught a glimpse of the lovely purple shade of Yuugi's eyes. He almost wanted to sob in relief as the other boy looked at him, his face expressing horror as he set eyes on Seto and the nearby Ishtar siblings who were still incapacitated. Seto's own eyes grew wet with tears as he sat up shakily to speak to Yuugi, his vision blurring.

"Yuugi, you have to end this. It, the spirit, will kill us all." Yuugi's eyes shot down to the artifact hanging over his chest as he asked quietly,

"How, Seto?" The taller boy bit the inside of his cheek, unable to answer, before he heard a sound from across the room as Malik got to his knees with difficulty.

"Break it." The Egyptian man said as both Yuugi and Seto watched him. The psychology student had a feeling that his professor's sibling was right and he nodded to his partner as the latter looked back at him. Though, before Yuugi could react to Malik's words, the spirit inside of him regained control, lavender eyes returning to deep red. The entity roared furiously and held its head; a fierce battle raging within it's the body for control. Seto stood up slowly and moved towards his possessed lover, his heart pounding rapidly in his chest and his head spinning. He called Yuugi's name again, wanting so badly for the shorter man to win his fight against the monster in his body. Yuugi, his eyes clenched shut in agony, reached up slowly to grasp the Puzzle around his neck. Seto looked on with baited breath as his partner fell to the floor and took the Puzzle. Yuugi seemed to struggle with an unseen force as his hands shook violently. His violet gaze, tinged with maroon, stared up at Seto before he smashed the artifact on the concrete forcefully. The Puzzle shattered into its many pieces and the room filled with bright light as a terrified but hollow scream of terror sounded. Seto tried to reach Yuugi, to protect him, but instead met the cool floor as he fell unconscious.

* * *

ITS DONE. I'm sorry the last chapter took so long to be posted. I was busy with my university finals. But here it is! There's only the epilogue left and the beauty that remains is done!


	7. Epilogue

**Rating:** M

 **Chapter Warnings:** Sex, homosexuality and mentions of supernatural themes

* * *

 ** _Eleven Months Later_**

The bedroom was dimly lit by the moonlight coming from the window. Even in such muted lighting, Yuugi could still find his lover's blue eyes; in truth, he could spot that harsh, intelligent, beautiful, soulful gaze in a large crowd with ease. He bit his lip and leant forward to kiss the taller man under him, a moan muffled in his throat as they made contact. Seto, who then moved to kissing his neck, held his hips gently and pulled them down to meet his own with teasing slowness and sharp accuracy. The movement caused a shudder of pleasure through Yuugi. The shorter boy tilted his lover's face up for a deep kiss, hungry for more. Yuugi sat upon Seto's lap while the taller boy sat against the headboard. After their fervent kiss, both men locked eyes as they moved their bodies together to the rhythm of their passion. Yuugi was memorized by the look his companion always gave him when they were like this, so intimately connected on every level. Seto looked so different in pleasure under Yuugi now then he did the first time they had had sex; the older boy was more relaxed, more confident and less inhibited.

Thinking back, Yuugi could almost laugh at how awkward they had been during their first time; both virgins with no idea what to do. It had been five months after they first met, on New Year's Eve, when they had both decided to take the big step. _I want you_ , Seto had said that night, as they kissed and caressed one another to the sound of the New Year celebrations on television. Yuugi always knew of the older man's desire for him, in the way he touched him and held him, in the way his blue eyes darkened with want when they set upon him, but for Seto to openly express it meant something different. Was he ready for the next step in their physical relationship? The couple had shared a long, loaded look and Yuugi shuddered under the intensity of Seto's gaze. He knew the time was right. Yuugi had been equally as nervous as Seto had looked, but he took the initiative and led them to their shared bedroom that night. Both boys were hesitant and uncertain of their movements at first, but Yuugi regretted nothing of their first time. Seto had been so incredibly gentle and careful with him that the amount of care he showed made Yuugi cry. Comically, that in turned made Seto panic, thinking that he had hurt his boyfriend. The shorter man gave a mental chuckle recalling that scene. Their first time hadn't been perfect; it had been awkward, messy and a little painful, but to Yuugi it had been perfect in its imperfection because of the emotions behind the act. He wouldn't have wanted his first time to be with anyone else. He knew Seto felt the same by the way he had smiled and held him extra close afterwards.

The memory pulled Yuugi back to the current moment and he gave a deep moan as Seto rolled his hips up a bit harder, at just the _right_ angle. The game design student tangled his fingers in his lover's hair and tightened his legs around his waist in need, whimpering lowly in his ear. Seto cursed under his breath and flipped them over bodily. Yuugi gasped in surprise but chuckled, amused at the turn of events. Seto wasn't much for taking the lead during their lovemaking, opposite to his usual need for control. He usually let his partner set the pace, to suit his tastes, but it always amused and aroused Yuugi when his boyfriend took the lead. The short man glanced up quizzically at his taller lover before the latter smirked down at him and pecked his lips before flipping Yuugi onto his stomach. Blinking, the smaller man rested his weight on his elbows before glancing back. Seto leant forward to suck a mark on the area between his shoulder blades then trailed warm kisses down his spine. Shivering at the feather light touches, Yuugi gripped the sheets and bit back an embarrassing sound of pleasure as his lover re-entered him from behind, his pace quicker but not forceful. He reached out and found Seto's hand, long fingers lacing tightly with his as the pair moved faster together.

For anyone on the outside looking in, Seto Kaiba seemed like the less romantic person alive. He never held hands in public and there was rarely any kissing or hugging. He also seemed indifferent to his partner while around other people, but the perceived indifference was only surface deep. Behind closed doors, Yuugi was spoiled by Seto in terms of affection and sweetness. It hadn't always been like that; the psychology student had long been apprehensive of any affectionate displays; his heart had been closed off for years and it made the beginning of their relationship especially tricky. Yuugi was a cuddly person by nature, but he had learnt to be patient with his new lover. After their first big fight two months after they first met, they admitted their true feelings for one another and made their relationship official. Seto had realized that his public coldness and distance towards Yuugi, as well as his difficulty handling emotions such as jealousy, had nearly ended his relationship with his shorter companion before it really began. The older boy had relaxed considerably since. He still rarely showed his emotions in public, but it didn't bother Yuugi anymore. He could see Seto's true feelings in his blue eyes much more clearly. The older boy was just a private person and he had already stepped outside of his comfort zone by letting Yuugi tell his close circle of friends, including that 'aloof fool' Jounouchi, about two months after they became official. Sometimes, Yuugi wondered if Seto had only agreed to have a valid reason for glaring at Jounouchi whenever the blonde got too close to the shorter boy. Despite his obvious discomfort, Yuugi was eternally grateful for Seto's attempts to become acquainted with his friends, as they were all an important part of his life.

Glancing back at Seto's face, Yuugi pushed his hips up under him and rocked them back roughly. Both of them moaned deeply and Seto buried his face against the nape of his lover's neck before his body gave a hard shudder. Yuugi also soon reached his climax. It gave him a small sense of pride and happiness to see Seto's typically distant exterior break down and know _he_ was the cause for the change. He loved seeing the want, the passion and the _love_ in Seto's eyes, because the emotions were all meant for him. The knowledge made his heart pound in his chest. As they rested sweaty and panting on the older boy's bed after their lovemaking, Yuugi nuzzled Seto's chest sleepily while the latter stroked his messy, spiked head of hair. Every time together only got better, as the pair grew and learnt each other's likes and dislikes. It was never perfect, but reality was full of imperfections. They became less cautious and freer with their passion. While they both entered the relationship with no previous experience, it allowed for the most genuine form of growth between them. Yuugi wouldn't want his first serious relationship to be any other way. He couldn't imagine having _that_ sort of connection with anyone else. He was more than happy with Seto; he truly felt like they belonged together.

The last step in their relationship was saying those three big words. 'I love you' should come so easily after everything they had been through, including the hectic, fear-laced beginning to their romance, but Yuugi hesitated. He loved Seto heart, mind and soul without a doubt; he would do anything and everything for the man beside him. His feelings for the older boy had grown unexpectedly, but they had not been unwelcomed. He would have never expected to develop feelings for the strange paranormal investigator and psychology graduate; but it came naturally. He had been attracted from the start; after all, he hadn't been blind to Seto's attractiveness. And when the shorter man started getting to know him, Seto helped fill a void in Yuugi's life that the he had always known was present and was only amplified by his grandfather's death. Yuugi and Seto were two lonely souls with a common experience of loss and grief brought together by extraordinary circumstances. After he destroyed the 'Millennium Puzzle' and hopefully locked away the evil spirit inside it, Yuugi had temporarily feared that Seto's and his relationship would end, because the one common experience that held them together was over. It had taken weeks before their lives returned to a semblance of normal, whatever that would be for them. Even after Professor Ishtar's reassurance that the Puzzle, now in pieces, could cause no further harm, Yuugi continued to have nightmares about the artifact. One and a half weeks after their encounter with the entity of the artifact, Yuugi's worse episode caused him to call Seto in the middle of night in a blind panic. He had dreamt of his hands around his lover's neck as the life had drained from the former's eyes. It was an image Yuugi could never forget; it still haunted him to that day. Seto had been patient and caring during the whole situation. Two weeks after that particular nightmare, Yuugi put his grandfather's house up for sale and moved into one of the dorms on Domino University's campus after the home's quick sale to a young, eager married couple with their first child on the way. The game design student knew his life couldn't go back to normal if he stayed in the place where so many bad things had happened, even if parting with his childhood home had been difficult. Seto had offered Yuugi a space in his own apartment, but the younger man had refused the offer. He feared it would rush their relationship too much and he didn't want to ruin things before they even began. As a compromise, he happily spent most of his free time at the older boy's apartment and owned its spare key. Seto seemed content with the arrangement, temporarily.

Yuugi watched Seto quietly as the latter closed his eyes for a moment. He was afraid those three loaded words would scare the other man. He could see in his partner's eyes, those striking, poignant blue eyes he loved, that the taller student loved him; Seto just couldn't say the words yet. Yuugi didn't want to feel disappointed, because his lover's actions demonstrated his true feelings time and time again. He just wanted to hear the words from Seto's lips. Even a year into their adventure together, the psychology graduate was still hard to read at times. He tried to express his thoughts and concerns more frequently for Yuugi's benefit, but the long-held habit of keeping his heart and mind closed off was difficult to shake. Yuugi sighed at the thought.

As he caught Seto staring at him, the pair shared a long, quiet look. Yuugi could feel the words he wanted to say so badly form on his tongue. He held them back and looked away. Seto, as observant as ever, pulled him closer and the younger boy sighed again.

"What's wrong?" The older student asked quietly.

"Hmm, it's nothing. I was just thinking." The shorter man gave a vague reply, wrapping his arm around his lover's waist and resting his head on his shoulder. Yuugi hoped Seto would drop the topic, but like the stubborn man the latter was, he didn't.

"I can tell something's on your mind. You can't look me in the eye. It's a sign of lying." Seto hummed, watching his lover patiently.

"Seto Kaiba, don't even try and pull your 'I'm going to be a big shot psychologist and I'll use my powers to psyche you out' thing on me. I'm not your patient." Yuugi wasn't angry; he merely pouted up at his lover. Seto once said that he felt like an open book to Yuugi, but the latter could argue the sentiment went both ways. He couldn't keep a secret from his boyfriend, no matter how hard he tried. In reply, the older boy chuckled.

"You don't have to, but you know you can tell me anything."

 _Except I love you_ , Yuugi thought and settled back down with his head on Seto's chest as the latter stroked his back gently. He said nothing in reply, deeming it safer. One day soon, he thought as his eyes closed, he was going to tell Seto his true feelings. He could only hope the older man would accept them when he did.

* * *

Seto stayed awake after Yuugi fell asleep. He alternatively stared between his partner and the bright stars outside the bedroom window, deep in thought. Seto had a feeling he knew what Yuugi had been thinking before, what he had wanted to say. The way the latter had gazed intently at him and the manner with which his beautiful violet eyes shone... He knew Yuugi wanted to say he loved him; the other boy's feelings were as clear as day on his face. The knowledge made Seto's heart ache, because he wanted badly to say them back to the younger man, but his fear held him back. He felt like such a coward. They had already admitted they liked each other, saying 'I love you' was just the next logical step. He did love Yuugi, more then he himself could grasp. Sighing, Seto slid from Yuugi's hold and sat on the edge of his bed, staring into the darkness of his bedroom. From the corner of the room, the psychology student caught a glimpse of small round eyes glowing in the dark. Seto stared absently at Yami, Yuugi's pet rabbit, as the animal observed him from inside her wire cage.

Getting up quietly and slipping on his pajama pants, Seto padded over to the cage beside his closet and sat on the carpeted floor, opening the wire door to reach in and pet the black creature inside. Yami lifted her head to the touch, closing her eyes a bit and nuzzling against Seto's palm. She often reminded him of her owner; sweet, mild-tempered and attentive. The psychology graduate thought back to the moment he had gained the rabbit as his roommate. The university dorms didn't allow for pets. Yuugi found out about the restriction after his application had already been accepted and the shorter man had been heartbroken at the idea of re-homing his beloved pet. Seto couldn't bear to watch his would-be lover at the time cry over the thought of losing his rabbit. Against his better judgement, the taller boy offered to take the pet in and care for it while Yuugi found another solution. Surprised, the latter had been overjoyed and had thanked Seto repeatedly. Despite his hesitance, Seto didn't regret his decision. Nearly a year after 'adopting' the rabbit, Seto found himself enjoying her quiet company and secretly, he knew the pet's presence gave Yuugi a reason to visit his apartment on a daily basis, which he was happy with though he would never admit it. Besides, he did little to actually care for the animal; Yuugi paid for all of her necessities and attended to her every day. Seto didn't even have to be at home because his lover kept his spare house key.

Seto chuckled and gave Yami a piece of carrot from her bowl, watching as the furry pet munched on it contently. He turned to stare at his boyfriend sleeping peacefully in his bed. _Our bed_ , Seto thought. It had been several months since he stopped viewing his apartment as belonging to him only. Yuugi spent so much time visiting and even staying over several nights a week it felt like the younger boy's home too. The changes in his life since meeting Yuugi Mutou didn't faze Seto as much as he always thought it would, because the other man felt like he fit right in. He was the lost link Seto hadn't realized was missing all along. Yuugi made him _happy_ ; the psychology student hadn't been as content with his life since before his little brother's death. Maybe he didn't show Yuugi his happiness and appreciation often enough. He had come to love the shorter man so intensely it sometimes scared him; it scared him so much he couldn't even admit to his true feelings. Seto feared that if he admitted the extent of his love for Yuugi that he himself would be hurt, because his love could be used as a weapon, just like his love for Mokuba had been an all-too effective weapon.

His logic was ridiculous and Seto felt ashamed to think anything bad possible from Yuugi. His lover had never hurt him and Seto knew he never would, but in his heart, the taller boy still feared. He feared he could lose Yuugi and the loss would be devastating. After their experience with the 'Millennium Puzzle' and its evil, Seto never felt quite at ease. Yuugi had successful banished the entity of the artifact after breaking the Puzzle apart, but the paranormal researcher knew that the spirit was not gone for good. Professor Ishtar assumed that if the pendant was never reassembled, it could cause no further harm. It was what her brother, Malik, had experienced while possessed by another of the 'Millennium items'. It gave little reassurance to Seto and Yuugi. After the cursed artifact had been taken away and put into safe hands of a long time friend of Professor Ishtar, who was an experienced Egyptian archeologist, Yuugi had nightmares about his experience for weeks. Seto could never forget the night Yuugi had called him in a nightmare-induced panic. The older boy never knew what the dream had been about, but he suspected its contents by how tightly his little lover had held him after he'd arrived at the former's home. Even now, nearly a year after the ordeal, Yuugi still had violent nightmares, though they had decreased in frequency. Seto, who knew the feeling of that kind of fear all too well, hated seeing his lover suffer under the unresolved threat. He wondered if they could ever find peace from the evil of the 'Millennium Puzzle'. He hated not being able to protect Yuugi; which was why he secretly worked with Professor Ishtar to try and find a better solution to the artifact's presence. So far, their research had led to no conclusions.

Seto stared at Yami as the pet looked back at him curiously. Frowning, the psychology graduate rested his hand over the wire cage and let the rabbit sniff his hand.

"I love him. How can I tell him, Yami?"

He knew he looked ridiculous speaking to a rabbit, but Seto needed to pour out his feelings. He struggled with the choice to tell Yuugi his true feelings, when telling the shorter man shouldn't be a struggle at all. The internal toil made the older man hate his cowardliness. He loved Yuugi; it was as simple as that. He just needed to put aside his fear and say it.

Seto woke up the next morning in his bed, feeling slightly confused. Last he remembered, he had been speaking to Yuugi's rabbit, but he must have crawled back into bed at some point. He sat up and looked beside him, finding the other side of the bed cold and empty. Yuugi must be awake before him, which was rare. Seto got up slowly and headed to the bathroom. After a quick freshening up, the psychology student headed to the kitchen. He remained dressed in only his pajama bottoms, too lazy to fetch a shirt; Seto was in his home anyways. Attracted by the smell of food and the sound of a voice, Seto peaked into the small kitchen. Yuugi was singing lowly to a song in his head, likely one of his beloved American pop songs. Seto stood quietly in the doorway, watching his boyfriend with a small smile as the other boy sung along to a random song, dressed only in boxers and one of Seto's t-shirts while making what seemed to be pancakes. Pancakes were Seto's favorite non-Japanese breakfast dish but he rarely made them for himself. It warmed his heart to see Yuugi up early making his favorite food, as the shorter boy had done several times before. Yuugi didn't even like pancakes that much; they were too sweet for him.

Seto continued staring absently as Yuugi went about cooking breakfast, not noticing his taller lover standing feet away. It allowed the older of the two a moment to appreciate his small love, as he watched him flip the pancakes in a pan. Seto felt something weigh heavily on his heart and he felt perplexed. The feeling built and suddenly he had the urge to tell Yuugi that he loved him. Blinking, Seto was confused by his sudden change of heart; but his puzzlement cleared as he truly observed the man before him. Yuugi sang the lyrics to what sounded like a love song. His voice was smooth and his English accent endearing as he sang each word with feeling, as if trying to serenade someone. His usual head of spiky multicoloured hair was only partly tamed, as random locks still stuck out in odd places. He looked both adorable and ridiculous in his boyfriend's too-big shirt; from his viewpoint, Seto could see the mark he had left on his lover's neck the night before. What stood out the most to him was Yuugi's smile, which was bright and happy in the midmorning sunlight as he moved to carefully plate the prepared pancakes. Seto realized he wanted nothing more than to always see Yuugi as happy the latter was at that moment. He always wanted to see that beautiful smile that brought light to his soul and represented love and sanctuary. Seto had nothing to fear of his feelings and he wanted to make his lover happier by admitting them. He truly loved Yuugi and there was nothing to be afraid of.

"Yuugi."

The aforementioned boy turned and grinned at the sight of his lover standing in the entranceway. Yuugi came closer to Seto, leaning up a bit to peck the taller man's cheek.

"Good morning. You're up late so I made breakfast," the shorter boy said with a teasing grin. Seto pecked his lover on the lips and pulled away, biting the inside of his cheek. The look Yuugi gave him, so full of love and adoration, finally broke his resolve. Seto opened his mouth, the words he wanted to say poised on the tip of his tongue.

* * *

HOLY SHIT ITS DONE. And this is the official ending of "The Beauty That Remains". I want to thank everyone who's given some of their time to read this work. I put a lot of time and effort into it and I'm proud of it. I'm almost sad to it done, BUT I am working on some prequel-sequels, a few oneshot of Seto and Yuugi's relationship in the first year of their romance (so taking place between Chapter 6 and the Epilogue). I'm thinking there will be three oneshots, at least for now. Look out for them in the future. Thank you again!


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